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features

32 26 PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS

Heat (protein) and cold (bitartrate) stability issues in wine cause off-putting aesthetic defects that are often brought to light after the wine is in the bottle and undergoes a temperature swing if not taken care of during bulk aging. Learn how (and if) you should take these heat and cold stabilization precautions at home.

by Dwayne Bershaw

32 TOP 100 WINE KITS OF 2022

More than 400 wines made from kits were judged at the 2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. Many received recognition; and here we share the 100 kit wines that performed best, according to the judging results.

36 MEDAL- WINNING DESSERT KIT TIPS

Following the directions that come with your wine kit will result in very good wine, but sometimes experimenting is part of the fun. Three award-winning winemakers share how they go about making adjustments to dessert wine kits — a category of wine that works well with fortification and other tweaks.

by Dawson Raspuzzi

42 THE SCIENCE OF WINEMAKING

There is a lot of chemistry involved in winemaking — the better you understand it, the better chance you have of consistently making quality wine. Learn the role science plays and how to use it to your advantage when it comes to Brix, pH, titratable acidity, and more.

by Clark Smith

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8 MAIL

A pro winemaker shares why he continues reading WineMaker long after exchanging his amateur status for commercial production. We also update readers on where they can find us on social media.

10 CELLAR DWELLERS

A time for friends and family to gather and celebrate, the holiday season is best paired with good food and wine. Be sure you plan ahead to match the main course with the vino. Also, learn about the latest wine-related news, new products, and upcoming events.

14 WINE WIZARD

As a winemaker evolves, learning how to evaluate their wine during different stages of maturation can be key. The Wine Wizard has some thoughts on what to expect when tasting wines at various young ages as well as kegging homemade wine.

18 VARIETAL FOCUS

Spain’s fifth most planted white wine grape, Verdejo, enjoys warm climates while being able to retain some acidity. Learn the merits of this grape from the Iberian Peninsula and how to make the best wines with it.

46 TECHNIQUES

Commercial producers of ice wines and ice ciders are highly regulated in their production, but hobby wine and cidermakers don’t need to abide by those rules. Learn some creative ways to produce these coveted, sweet sippers.

49 ADVANCED WINEMAKING

While haze can sometimes just be aesthetically off-putting and not a true flaw, it’s something many winemakers like to avoid. Get the scoop on reducing haze and other benefits, as well as drawbacks, that come with the use of fining agents.

56 DRY FINISH

This past October, a team of four super wine-tasting women (who are also amateur winemakers) traveled to Champagne, France, along with their coach to compete against over 30 teams from various countries in order to find out who the best wine tasters are.

EDITOR

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Dwayne Bershaw, Chik Brenneman, Alison Crowe, Wes Hagen, Maureen Macdonald, Bob Peak, Phil Plummer, Dominick Profaci

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Jim Woodward, Chris Champine

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Charles A. Parker, Les Jörgensen

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Aging Wine Kits

Do

you have a favorite holiday meal and what type of wine do you pair it with?

We usually do a turkey for family holiday dinners. I find that Pinot Noir is a great wine to pair with the bird; plus, its earthy, tart cherry flavors also play well with all of the yummy side dishes.

At Christmas or New Year’s we love a traditional Englishstyle roast prime rib or standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, Brussels sprouts, and all the trimmings. For the main meal, we go for ‘big reds’ like Napa Valley or Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (usually of my own making) and always include a Zinfandel, often from California’s Sierra Foothills, for the in-laws. I do tend to include one of my Pinot Noirs from the Russian River or Carneros, for those who don’t want something so tannic and potentially heavy. The most important part of any celebration is the people — surround yourselves with friends and family and, no matter what you serve, love makes everything taste its best!

For a holiday meal of ham, turkey, stuffing, and the rest of the fixings, my go-to wine would be Viognier. They tend to be full-bodied and very floral and flavorful — even a touch of sweetness from their fruit notes. They are a great match that can stand up to the heavier foods and the spices like nutmeg and clove.

Kiev Rattee

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Kit wines are often consumed fairly young, but great things can happen if you allow the bottles to age longer. Two supply shop owners give guidance and teach the basics of patience and best practices for aging kit wines. https:// winemakermag.com/technique/agingwine-kits-tips-from-the-pros

MEMBERS ONLY

Dessert Wines

Perfect for afterdinner treats, dessert wines are some of the most complex beverages in the world. Get tips for making your own icewine, Sherrystyle, and Port-style wines at home. https://winemakermag.com/article/ dessert-wines

Tannin Chemistry

All contents of WineMaker are Copyright © 2022 by Battenkill Communications, unless otherwise noted. WineMaker is a registered trademark owned by Battenkill Communications, a Vermont corporation. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned, and no responsibility can be assumed for such material. All “Letters to the Editor” should be sent to the editor at the Vermont office address. All rights in letters sent to WineMaker will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to WineMaker’s unrestricted right to edit. Although all reasonable attempts are made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions anywhere in the publication. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States of America. Volume 25, Number 6: December 2022-January 2023.

Soft, silky, velvety, youthful, puckery, aggressive, harsh, bitter, astringent: These are all adjectives used in winespeak to describe the many taste sensations from tannins in red wines. Learn about the science behind them. https:// winemakermag.com/technique/1045tannin-chemistry-techniques

MEMBERS ONLY

Mastering Wine Acid Balance

Sometimes the acidity of your grapes, juice, or wine will need to be adjusted. Learn some of the finer details surrounding how, and when, to make those acid adjustments to your wine. https://winemakermag.com/ technique/mastering-wine-acid-balance

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FOR HOBBYISTS AND PROS ALIKE

I have been producing wines in a small-scale winery for eight years. I started in a friend’s winery in 2014 as a hobby and then opened Blue Mule Wines (Fayetteville, Texas) in late 2017. I continue to subscribe to WineMaker because of the articles that are relevant to both hobby and commercial winemakers.

Mike Gamble • Fayetteville, Texas

We always love to hear from former home winemakers turned pro winemakers who still read the magazine. While we have always had a focus on the hobby winemaker, we strongly feel that much of the content in every issue is just as applicable to those who make wine on larger scales at a commercial level. In fact, according to our annual survey results, about 5% of our subscribers are pro winemakers, and another 15% have aspirations of turning pro. These numbers (as well as a lot of other feedback we’ve received over the years) is why we launched GaragisteCon Online earlier this year with a focus on small-scale commercial wineries. Our second annual GaragisteCon Online event, which has three learning tracks (Business/Sales, Winery Operations, and Start-Ups), will be held February 17, 2023 and we’re looking forward to connecting with more commercial winemakers and those aspiring to turn their hobbies into professions. In case others may want to learn more about what it takes to become a professional winemaker or open a small-scale winery, we also offer the quarterly Garagiste e-newsletter — with content geared specifically to those in the industry — which anyone who is signed up to receive WineMaker’s weekly e-newsletter also receives.

NEW FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Does WineMaker still have a Facebook page? I used to follow the magazine because I loved seeing the stories that were posted as well as photos and updates from the wine competition and events, but it doesn’t look like the page is still active.

Jen Smith • via email

Why, yes, we do still have a Facebook page (as well as Twitter and Instagram pages) that our readers can follow along on! We did have to change our Facebook handle after the previous page was hacked . . . but you can continue to follow us on Facebook at “WineMakerMagazine,” and stay in touch on Instagram @winemakermag and on Twitter @WineMakerMag for the latest happenings and home winemaking content! We hope to see you there!

Dwayne Bershaw began making wine in his garage in 2006 while working as an engineer in Silicon Valley. The passion grew and in 2010 he received a master’s degree in viticulture and enology from UC-Davis. He has four years of experience in a variety of temporary positions in Sonoma and Napa County wineries, and served four years as the Associate Director of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute at Umpqua Community College where he taught all of the enology coursework. There he was also responsible to schedule and manage production of 300–700 cases of wine per year with student participation at the school’s commercial winery. Since 2015 he has held a lecturer position in the food science department at Cornell University.

Starting on page 26, Dwayne describes the purpose and process for putting your wines through heat and cold stabilization to avoid visual defects.

Dawson Raspuzzi has been with WineMaker magazine since 2013 and became the Editor of WineMaker, as well as its sister publication Brew Your Own magazine, in 2017. He is a 2007 graduate of the journalism program at Castleton University in Castleton, Vermont. Out of college he was a reporter for a couple of Vermont newspapers. He can say without a doubt that wine and beer are much more enjoyable subjects to write about than school board meetings. When he isn’t working he’s chasing his three kids around, playing with his hound dog, and enjoying the nature that surrounds him in southern Vermont.

Beginning on 36, Dawson puts his journalism background to good use by interviewing three award-winning kit winemakers about the adjustments they’ve made to dessert wine kits.

Clark Smith is one of California’s most widely respected winemakers. In addition to his own WineSmith wines, he has built many successful brands and consults for hundreds of wineries on five continents. His popular course, Fun-damentals of Winemaking Made Easy, has graduated over 4,500 winemakers to rave reviews. Winemaker, inventor, author, musician, and teacher, Smith was named the Innovator of the Year at the 2016 Innovation + Quality conference (presented by Wine Business Monthly), was named among Wine Business Monthly’s 2018 list of the 48 Most Influential People, and is considered among the world’s foremost experts on pairing wine and music. His revolutionary Postmodern Winemaking was Wine and Spirits magazine’s 2013 Book of the Year.

Beginning on page 42, Clark explains the fundamental chemistry that is critical for winemakers to understand in order to make consistent, high-quality wine.

Balazs Hungarian

Oak Barrels

Balazs is a long-trusted brand of Hungarian oak barrels coopered by the famous Balazs Nagy. These barrels are equal to or better in quality than French Oak barrels but are available at a competitive price. Known for respecting fruit, Balazs Hungarian Oak barrels offer winemakers a great option to impact the mouthfeel, structure, and flavor of wine without stepping on the terroir of your grapes. They contribute a ton of complexity like a French barrel and have always been known for emphasizing fruit.

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RECENT NEWS

Rethinking Vertical Shoot Position Trellis Systems

A new study out from UC-Davis has shown that the popular vertical shoot position (VSP) trellis system is likely not the best trellising for warmer, sunnier sites like those found in California. The study looked at six different trellis systems, each at three different irrigation levels for two consecutive seasons. They tested a standard VSP trellis, two variations of the VSP system, a single high-wire cordon system, a high quadrilateral system, and Guyot-pruned VSP system. The irrigation levels were at 25%, 50%, and 100% of the crop’s evapotranspiration level.

The researchers concluded that the single high-wire cordon system had higher yields and accumulated anthocyanins at harvest. They found that the VSP trellis had reduced anthocyanins and that the leaf arrangement with this style of trellising was overexposing the fruit to sun. Their conclusions were clear for those vineyards in a hot and sunny climate: It’s time to replace your VSP trellises. The irrigation aspect of the study was less surprising with higher irrigation leading to larger berry size and yields, but lower anthocyanin and flavonol levels. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1015574/abstract

New Products:

Winexpert Winery Series The World Of Natural Wine

A new line of kits from Winexpert is aimed at smallto mediumsized wineries. This unique series of craft winemaking kits allows you to make table wines in a variety of flavors. The Winery Series kits come in 3.7-gal. (14-L) concentrates and yield 12.2 gal. (46.2 L) of finished wine. They are releasing a California Chardonnay, California Moscato, Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Chilean Diablo Rojo. As with many of the kits, ease of use and dependability are key features. Sold in the U.S. exclusively through LD Carlson. https://www.ldcarlson.com/

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2023, 1 TO 5 PM (EASTERN)

Backyard Grape Growing Online Workshop with Wes Hagen. Former professional vineyard manager and WineMaker’s longtime “Backyard Vines” columnist Wes Hagen will lead you online for four hours through all the steps a small-scale grape grower needs to know: Site selection, vine choice, planting, trellising, pruning, watering, pest control, harvest decisions, plus more strategies to successfully grow your own great wine grapes. All attendees will also receive a free download of Wes’ Guide to Growing Grapes and have access to the video recording.

https://winemakermag.com/product/2023-backyard-grape-growing

While the world of natural wines can be fairly polarizing in some wine circles, there is no denying that it can produce some interesting wines. Made from grapes alone — organically farmed, fermented, aged, and bottled without additives — they’re a winemaker’s expression of linking wine directly to nature. Author Aaron Ayscough looks to navigate this movement in The World of Natural Wine. Meet the obsessive, often outspoken, winemakers; learn about the regions of France where natural wine culture first appeared and continues to flourish today; and explore natural wine in Spain, Italy, Georgia, and beyond. https:// www.workman.com/products/the-world-ofnatural-wine/hardback

TUESDAY JANUARY 31, 2023

Early Bird Registration Deadline for Feb. 17, 2023 GaragisteCon

Online. A full day of live online seminars and Q&A panels for smallscale wineries and aspiring wineries. All attendees will have access to video recordings of all sessions. There are three learning tracks: Business/Sales, Winery Operations, and Start-Ups as well as Q&A sessions with leading small winery industry suppliers. Get your questions answered live by industry experts. Also attendees get to interact with other small wineries and wineries-in-planning to compare notes. Register by January 31, 2023 to save $100.

https://winemakermag.com/garagistecon

Photo by Ed Kwiek

AWARD-WINNING KITS

Here is a list of medal-winning kits for the Port Style category chosen by a blind-tasting judging panel at the 2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition in West Dover, Vermont:

Port Style

GOLD

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Black Forest Dessert Wine

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Crème Brûlée Dessert Wine

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Raspberry Mocha Dessert Wine

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Toasted Caramel Dessert Wine

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Vanilla Fig Dessert Wine

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Limited Release Coffee Dessert

Wine

Winexpert Après Chocolate

Raspberry Dessert Wine

Winexpert Speciale Peppermint

Mocha Dessert Wine

SILVER

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

White Chocolate Dessert Wine

Winexpert Après Chocolate Salted

Caramel Dessert Wine

Winexpert Après Toasted

Marshmallow Dessert Wine

BRONZE

Winexpert Blackberry Port Style

BY DAVE GREEN

BEGINNER’S BLOCK WINE PAIRING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

As the days grow shorter and shorter here in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s no wonder many of our ancestors chose this time of year for celebrations. The fall harvest has been stored away for the winter and to prevent from going stir crazy, they decided a party would be in order instead. So as we plan this year’s holiday seasons’ menus, what wine you plan to pair with the food should also be on that planning agenda. While the food menu may be diverse from house-to-house depending on family traditions, there are some good general rules of thumb to follow based on the main course.

TURKEY PAIRINGS

Here in the U.S. turkey has practically become synonymous with holiday feasts, mainly focused around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, and Easter celebrations. Being such a staple in so many homes during holidays means that it should be one that most people should be able to pair wine with. Luckily there is a wide range of wine styles that pair well with turkey: White, rosé, lighter-bodied reds, and sparkling wines.

When it comes to pairing whites with turkey, it’s nice to find one with a moderate to high acid level with some minerality that can really brighten the flavors found in the bird. Alsace-style white wines are where my tastes head to first. Early-picked Chardonnay (fermented and aged clean), Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Albariño, or Chenin Blanc are a few varietals that spring to mind. Dry rosé with a nice acid profile can also enhance the flavors.

If going for a red to pour, a lowtannin, lighter-bodied, and higher acidity wine would best pair with turkey . . . Pinot Noir, Gamay, or Grenache are three that may fit that bill. Finally, drier brut-style sparkling wines pair excellently when turkey is at the center of your holiday table. You know your cellar best though and may find other

wines that fill the role well.

HAM PAIRINGS

Many homes will find ham on their table for either Christmas or Easter. Often salty and sweet, pairing ham with a medium-bodied red wine that can lean towards jammy is one direction to take the pairing. Varietal wines like Zinfandel or Syrah should foot that bill. A blend such as a Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre (GSM) could work very well here. If the ham you are cooking is not to be sweetened with a glaze, I would lean to a more austere medium-bodied red. Grenache or maybe a lighter Merlot or Sangiovese might work well in this wine-food pairing.

If you’re looking to put some white wines on the table as well, look to full-bodied whites to pair well with a ham. A little oak-barrel aging on that Chardonnay may play well with the roastiness of the ham. Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Sémillon, or Viognier may also play well on your palate to match that sweet and savoriness of the ham. Don’t overlook the possibility of pairing rosé as well, particularly a darker, more full-bodied rosé.

Also, don’t forget about the possibility of a slightly sweeter white or even rosé sparkling wine. Think a Prosecco style of sparkling wine.

ROASTED BEEF PAIRINGS

There are several cuts of beef that different cultures will serve for the holidays like a prime rib or brisket. Here is where bigger red wines are going to shine at the dinner table. Any full-bodied Bordeaux-style blends or their varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Malbec; bigger Syrah, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, or Sangiovese wines; or even lesser-known varietals like Aglianico or Graciano, will play nicely with a beef main course. Just like with a steak, the fat will cut the larger tannin load found in these styles of

wines and proteins found in the roast, providing a smooth, fruity, and delicious pairing.

If you do want to try to pair a white wine with a roasted beef I would say that you would try best to match the richness of the beef. A white that has been aged sur lie would be a good start, but a California-style Chardonnay may also fit the bill with malolactic fermentation and some time on oak providing a buttery richness.

SEAFOOD DISH PAIRINGS

Growing up, my family always had seafood lasagna on Christmas Eve as the Feast of the Seven Fishes was a popular Italian tradition. What type of seafood and how it is prepared are going to be the driving forces behind what kind of wine you would want to pair it with. Is it going to be creamy-based northern Italian-style preparation or will there be more a southern, tomato-based sauce or even citrus? There is a large array of possible pairings here, but the main focus will often be white, rosé, or sparkling styles of wine. Lighter reds like those mentioned in the turkey section could also be utilized if you would like a red to sit on the table too. For example, salmon and a light, fruity Pinot Noir are a great match.

MEATLESS PAIRINGS

If your household doesn’t serve meat, well then there is no way to tell exactly where you may want to go with your pairing. The sky is the limit considering all the meatless options that we find out there today. You have to go on science and gut. Luckily for us, Bob Peak’s “Techniques” column from the AprilMay 2022 issue (or found at https:// winemakermag.com/technique/ delicious-endeavors-the-scienceof-food-wine-pairings) digs into the science behind making those decisions.

Happy holidays no matter what you are celebrating or wine you are drinking!

BY ALISON CROWE

WINE WIZARD TASTING WINE IN STAGES

Also: Bottling blues

QI’M SUPER EXCITED TO BE HEADING TO BORDEAUX, FRANCE, THIS COMING SPRING ( COVID REVENGE TRAVEL, HERE WE COME!) AND OF COURSE WE’RE PLANNING ON HITTING A NUMBER OF WINERIES. ONE OF THE EVENTS WE’LL BE ATTENDING ( AND MAYBE MORE ) HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO BARREL TASTINGS OF SOME OF THE CHATEAU’S NEWEST WINES. I’M SOMEWHAT EXPERIENCED WITH TASTING MY OWN YOUNG WINES ( I MOSTLY MAKE FRUIT- BASED WINES IN MISSOURI ) SO I WOULD LOVE SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO APPROACH THESE KINDS OF VERY SERIOUS WINES AT SUCH A YOUNG STAGE IN THEIR LIVES. MY HUSBAND AND I ARE PRETTY EXPERIENCED BORDEAUX DRINKERS; BUT WHAT SHOULD WE FOCUS ON: FRUIT STRUCTURE, ACIDITY, LENGTH, ETC.? ALSO, WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT MIGHT BE DIFFERENT TASTING WINE LESS THAN A YEAR OLD IN BARREL VS. SOMETHING LIKE WHICH WE TYPICALLY WOULD DRINK IN A BORDEAUX, NAMELY SOMETHING THAT’S “FINISHED WINE” WITH AT LEAST FOUR OR FIVE YEARS OF AGE.

EMILY CATTON JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI

AI apologize in advance for the lengthy response, but this is a fantastic question and I really wanted to flesh out my answer for you. You’re absolutely right to realize that tasting new and developing wines is vastly different than tasting the finished and bottled wines we are all accustomed to. As wines gain bottle age they change even further, developing secondary and tertiary “bottle bouquet” aromas. Before bottling, wine is in a whole different world. In general, over time, new wines, both red and white, increase in clarity as sediment falls out. They generally decrease in acidity and harshness as malolactic fermentation occurs and dissolved carbon dioxide evolves out of the wine. Wines become rounder and more “together” in the mouth as tannins condense and fall to the bottom of the aging vessel. Aromas develop from very primary fruity and funky during fermentation to become the mature and seamless aromas one associates with finished, bottled wine.

The length and finish of a new wine tend to be shorter and will lengthen with age.

Below are some details about what to look for at various stages of a wine’s life — depending on which barrels they show you (and when you visit), the new wine probably will be about five months old. The below will help you (and fellow readers) assess young wine at any stage. Whether tasting after a pumpover during harvest in Chile or barrel tasting at En Primeur in France (or after a racking of raspberry wine in Missouri), hopefully the below information can give you an idea of what to expect and how the wine will differ from something that’s “finished” and in the bottle.

COLOR

Fermenting wine: Newly crushed wines have the highest level of turbidity and sediment they ever will due to all those bits of grape pulp and skin floating around. As a result, the true color of the wine-to-be is quite masked. Due to the turbidity and sediment, this is not

If the wine is going through MLF it will still taste sour and gassy at this stage, which will make the tannins appear even rougher.

Most wines that are presented to us will be properly matured, but being able to judge an immature wine can be a handy skill for a winemaker.

a very pretty stage for any wine and, therefore, it’s difficult to judge what the pressed-off and settled color will be. Experience working with the same grapes over many harvest seasons will give you the experience needed to be able to predict final color.

1–6-month-old wine: Once a wine is dry and reds have been pressed off and settled, it’s easier to get a look at the color. Very young whites will still be very turbid, so samples need to be centrifuged in order to really get a good look. Be aware that, in red wine, suspended lees are almost a kind of whitening agent; the real wine behind the lees will always settle out darker than a leesy sample might suggest.

6–12-month-old wine: Color is very stable at this point and most reds exhibit the kind of color they’ll carry through the next five years or so. Well-settled whites will exhibit the color they’ll have for about the next two to three years; white wines oxidize and become more brown-hued after about five years in the bottle. White wines on a lees-stirring program will still be turbid, making color difficult to judge.

CLARITY

Fermenting wine: As mentioned earlier, fermentation is the most turbid a wine will be. Grape skin, pulp particles, and yeast cells all contribute to a juice or must that is impossible to see through. Don’t worry, time and gravity will take care of most if not all of this. Experienced tasters and winemakers will know but general consumers will often be very turned off by cloudy wine.

1–6-month-old wine: The wine will still be very turbid, especially if malolactic fermentation (MLF) happens and the weather is cold; suspended bacterial cells in a prolonged MLF will continue to make the wine appear cloudy or hazy.

6–12-month-old wine: Wine should be “falling bright” as gravity causes particulate matter to fall to the bottom of the barrel. It’s still unlikely the wine will be completely clear at this point, especially if lees are kicked up due to purposeful lees stirring or even during routine monthly sulfur dioxide additions and topping.

AROMA

Fermenting wine: This is a fun stage to experience as many types of smells from fabulous (think loads of ripe fruit percolating out of the fermenter) to funky (think of a microbial house party with wildly reproducing yeast and bacteria). The finished wine smells almost nothing like a wine during active fermentation.

1–6-month-old wine: Experienced tasters and winemakers know what to look for but general consumers are often very put off by wines at this stage. MLF can confuse and obfuscate positive and typical finished wine aromas. Compounds like hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) or other sulfur-containing compounds can contribute to a reduced (slight hydrogen sulfide) aroma during the early stages of a wine’s life. The wine can smell leesy and microbial; this is a classic stage for malolactic aromas like hamster-cage and mouse-pee that, though they will go away, are temporarily alarming. Though you can certainly smell some great, bright primary fruit aromas at this stage it is usually a very awkward time for most wines.

6–12-month-old wine: The wine will only now begin to take on more of the character of a finished product. The longer MLF goes on, the younger and more unfinished the wine will seem because the dissolved carbon dioxide and reproducing bacteria will keep it in a fermentative and unsettled state. In later months, the wine is “growing up” and turning slowly into what it will be in the bottle. Aromas go from fresh and very fruity to more complex and integrated, especially if oak extraction is involved. In barrel-aged red wines look for spice, vanilla, clove, leather, and black tea beginning to make an appearance.

TASTE, MOUTHFEEL, AND FINISH

Fermenting wine: As in the aroma category, this is an adventurous stage to taste! You’ll get sweet, sour, and everything in between as the yeast turn the grape sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. As you might expect, wine during primary and secondary (malolactic fermentation) can carry a large amount of dissolved carbon dioxide gas, such that it will feel harsh on the palate and not smooth at all. Tannin content will be minimal at this stage because in red wines the grape skins are just beginning to extract into the aqueous, then increasingly alcoholic, solution.

1–6-month-old wine: The wine is now pressed so all of the tannins that come from the grape (some will come from the barrel, later) are in the wine. The tannins in reds will taste harsh, rough, and aggressive at this stage, unless the grape is a low-tannin variety like Pinot Noir. If the wine is going through MLF it will still taste sour and gassy at this stage, which will make the tannins appear even rougher. Alcohol + tannin + carbon dioxide + acidity all enhance/increase the sensation of the other, which is one of the reasons young wine is so unpleasant to taste.

The wine will taste disjointed, as if the parts have not really begun to hang together yet. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to try to get a sense of what a wine will become at this time. At six months in the barrel, if new wood, the oak will have begun to make its presence felt. Approaching six months, tannins in red wines will begin to condense into larger molecules, appearing smoother on the palate. The largest tannin molecules may even fall out of solution and accumulate as lees and sediment in the bottom of tanks and barrels.

6–12 month old wine: By now the elements that will make the final wine have begun to really come together, and because so much has “settled down” (carbon dioxide levels have subsided, MLF is over, etc.) it’s easier to pick out the taste elements that will stay with the wine as it ages further and as it’s bottled and bottle-aged. The wine will feel smoother in the mouth as tannins condense and mature. The small amounts of oxygen released into a barrel or in a tank through micro-oxygenation will help keep the wine on a forward-moving trajectory towards aging and will prevent (hopefully!) a return to a reductive state. The finish will start to lengthen though it’s nowhere near what it will be at 18 months to two years in barrel.

It’s important to realize that when barrel tasting, you may only be tasting one barrel out of many that may make its way into a final blend. Each barrel is like its own mini tank— even

WINE WIZARD

if you put the same wine into it, in six months it can be very different from its siblings, especially if different coopers and toast levels are used. Be sure to ask what the situation is; you may be tasting wine from a barrel that has recently been homogenized and put back down to barrel in a group or you may be tasting a barrel in which the wine has been residing for six months or more. If the latter is the case, it can be very interesting to compare the same original wine across different kinds of barrels. Do be a cautious consumer — it’s unlikely that

any winery will just randomly let the public in and wander around tapping any old barrel. They will probably present some of the best stuff to you, and the “barrel sample” may be a very carefully composed blend!

I hope the above has been helpful to you for your travels as well as your own winemaking. I wish you the best of luck on your travels and I’m sure that you will find plenty of tasting joys that will give you a wealth of new information about how wines develop!

QI REALLY HATE BOTTLING. I PRETTY MUCH DETEST ALMOST EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, FROM THE HASSLE OF CLEANING TO ASSEMBLING ALL OF THE PARTS AND PIECES OF GEAR AND SUPPLIES. THE ONLY THING I LIKE ABOUT IT IS HAVING MY FRIENDS OVER WHILE I FEED THEM PIZZA AND BEER ( NO WINE ALLOWED ON BOTTLING DAY ) AND PRESS GANG THEM INTO GIVING ME A BUNCH OF FREE LABOR. THEN THERE ARE THE TIMES WHEN I HAVE A CORKED BOTTLE TURN UP AFTER ALL THAT HARD WORK . . . I COULD GO ON! SORRY TO COMPLAIN. I’VE BEEN CONTEMPLATING KEGGING MY WINE I KNOW IT’S MAYBE A LITTLE WEIRD AND IT DOES FEEL LIKE UNKNOWN TERRITORY. I’VE NEVER HOMEBREWED BEER BUT SOME OF MY BUDDIES HAVE, SO I FEEL LIKE I COULD GIVE IT A TRY. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT KEGGED WINE YAY OR NAY?

AHey, I’ve been there . . . a couple of years ago I also entered into unknown territory. After years of bottling one of my commercial Pinot Noirs in Stelvin screwcaps, I embarked on an adventure into the land of wine kegs, or “wine-on-tap.” I kept hearing from sommeliers and restaurant staff how by-the-glass programs were exploding for them and wine-on-tap was leading the way. Consumers liked the environmentally friendly message, they liked the often higher-end choices of wine on offer, and, ultimately, they liked the quality they were tasting in the glass.

The restaurant owners and staff loved the fact that they didn’t have to toss half-used bottles of open wine that hadn’t sold, didn’t have empty glass bottles to recycle, and that their staff was more efficient now that the “cork popping” tableside ceremony was happening less and less often.

But, as a home winemaker, what if you’re not planning on selling your wine like I do and therefore the above reasons to keg your wine don’t really apply to you? Rest assured there are still plenty of reasons for home winemakers to take their wine for a spin in the stainless container. So, if you’re not going to be selling your wine like I do and still want to know why you should have yourself a wine kegger, check out these compelling reasons:

A glass of fresh wine every time, from first glass to last.

• Ever been to a restaurant, ordered a wine by the glass with which you are familiar, only to have it come to the table tasting tired, oxidized, and ho-hum? Chances are you were served from a bottle that had been open since yesterday, or worse, for longer! When you buy (or serve at home) wine from a keg, pushed out with an inert gas, you know the last glass will be as nice as the first.

No oxidation and no cork taint.

• Since there is no cork involved here there is no chance of

cork taint from that source. Since you don’t have to worry about the integrity of a plug of tree bark, there’s less chance of air coming in from that source. Every glass tastes like you meant it to taste.

Less “bottle shock”

• Think about it this way . . . kegging up wine is more like bottling in “large format” (3- to 5-L) big bottles than your standard 750-mL model. The smaller the vessel, the larger the ratio of oxygen-to-wine. I believe that bottle shock is very much about big slugs of oxygen getting into your wine and then chewing its way through it as it “figures itself out” (I know, that’s a touchy feely way of putting it, but forgive me). By packaging in bigger vessels, you lower that oxygen-to-wine ratio and therefore the oxygen-equilibrating blowback of bottle shock.

It’s the “green” choice — massive reduction in carbon footprint compared to bottles

• This is a reason that everyone can get behind!

• Reusable kegs can be used for 30+ years.

• No waste to the landfill: Each reusable steel keg saves over 2,340 lbs. (1,060 kg) of trash from the landfill over its lifetime (source: www.freeflowwines.com).

To get you up to speed on the (limited, I promise!) gear, I really recommend you check out Tim Vandergrift’s excellent piece “Kegging Your Wine” at our website, (https://winemakermag. com/technique/1408-wine-on-tap). He really breaks down the details for you and walks you through the process. Probably the easiest way to get started is to use a Cornelius keg, a.k.a., “Corny keg,” as Tim suggests. If you can borrow some of the set-up bits and bobs from one of your brewing friends, that makes it even easier and more affordable. Kegging wine can have a ton of benefits . . . and you don’t need to invite a gang of friends over to help, though you can still certainly have a pizza and beer night (with some tastes from your keg) afterwards!

ARNOLD ALEXANDER BEND, OREGON

VARIETAL FOCUS

BY CHIK BRENNEMAN

A warm-climate white wine grape VERDANT VERDEJO

Writer’s block is something every writer experiences from time to time, and sometimes the blockade is removed under some of the most bizarre situations. We were shopping in the local Carrefour Express Market in Cullera, Spain, over the summer and I had a bottle of wine in each hand trying to decide which one to buy. I called over to my wife, Polly, and asked which one she “liked,” the one in my right hand or the left, without knowing either variety. Something was lost in the translation because she interpreted it as which one I should write about. Typical married couple of 33+ years, the Venus and Mars syndrome, I assumed she referred to the one in my right hand, which is the one that we purchased. We were walking back to our apartment and she asked me what made me decide on that variety. I responded it was the one in my right hand, just like she requested. Confusing looks on both of our faces told us we had no clue what had just happened, but in the end we enjoyed that bottle of Verdejo that evening over a good laugh! It was the “right” variety and as it turns out after all these years of writing this column, we have never covered it in detail.

Verdejo is named for the green color of its berries. It is truly an Old-World variety having been introduced to the Rueda region of Spain long before Moorish rule, around the 5th century. Verdejo is sometimes confused with the variety Godello, grown to the northwest in the Galicia region. Verdejo is also confused with the varieties Verdelho and Gouveio, which are both synonyms for Godello in nearby Portugal. However, DNA parentage analysis suggests Godello is a sibling of Verdejo.

The clusters are compact, small- to

medium-sized, thin-skinned berries. They are early- to mid-budding, making it somewhat prone to spring frost. As the season progresses the berries take on a distinctive blue-green bloom, a coating on the berries themselves. Its vines are generally of low vigor and do best in warm to hot regions in low-fertility clay soils. It is highly susceptible to powdery mildew and tradition holds it is best cane pruned.

The Rueda is a warm climate region in the north central part of the country and Verdejo has been described as its pride and joy. It is Spain’s fifth most planted white wine variety with 44,333 acres (17,931 ha) reported in 2016, with an upward trend in vineyard area planted to it. It was mostly known for its fortified styles, but it has been a rising star in the dry whites it is being made into. Despite its popularity as a dry white varietal wine, the regulations of the Rueda DO allow for blending with another up and coming grape of the region, that being Sauvignon Blanc. The DO regulations do allow for white wines to be predominantly made from or solely from Sauvignon Blanc. A fairly progressive DO, you will also find Verdejo in sparkling wines and fortified Sherry-like wines.

The wines are very aromatic, medium to high acidity, and full bodied with notes of laurel and bitter almonds. They become nuttier with age and respond well to barrel fermentations and oak aging. Of course that all depends on how the fruit behaves in any given season and how the grapes and juice present themselves to the winemaker.

There are two main contributing factors to making Verdejo wine in the style I prefer; yeast and acid. We’ll tackle the latter first. While I mentioned that the grape retains its acidity, that is relatively speaking. In warmer climates, some acid

The wines are very aromatic, medium to high acidity, and full bodied with notes of laurel and bitter almonds.

VERDEJO Yield 5 gallons (19 L)

INGREDIENTS

100 lbs. Verdejo fruit or 6 gallons (23 L) juice

Distilled water

10% potassium metabisulfite (KMBS) solution (Weigh 10 g of KMBS, dissolve into about 75 mL of distilled water. When completely dissolved, make up to 100 mL total with distilled water.)

5 g Lalvin QA23 yeast

5 g Diammonium phosphate (DAP)

5 g Fermaid K (or equivalent yeast nutrient)

EQUIPMENT

5-gallon (19-L) carboy

6-gallon (23-L) carboy

6-gallon (23-L) plastic bucket

Racking hoses

Inert gas (nitrogen, argon, or carbon dioxide will do)

Refrigerator (~45 °F/7 °C) to cold settle the juice (remove the shelves so that the bucket will fit)

Ability to maintain a fermentation temperature of 55 °F (13 °C)

Thermometer capable of measuring between 40–110 °F (4–45 °C) in one degree increments

Pipettes with the ability to add in increments of 1 mL

Tartaric acid (addition rate is based on acid testing results)

STEP BY STEP

1. If starting with juice, begin at step

7. Crush and press the grapes. Do not delay between crushing and pressing. Move the must directly to the press and press lightly to avoid extended contact with the skins and seeds.

2. Transfer the juice to the 6-gallon (23-L) bucket. During the transfer, add 2.5 mL per gallon (0.66 mL per L) of 10% KMBS solution. (This addition is the equivalent of about 35 ppm SO2.)

3. Move the juice to a refrigerator at 45 °F (7 °C). Let the juice settle at least overnight. Layer the headspace with inert gas and keep covered.

4. When sufficiently settled, rack the juice off of the solids into the 6-gallon (23-L) carboy.

5. Mix up the Fermaid K in about 50 mL of previously boiled water (to sterilize it so you can add it to the juice) then add to juice.

6. Prepare yeast. Heat the 50 mL water to 104 °F (40 °C). Do not exceed this temperature as you will kill the yeast. If you overshoot the temperature, start over, or add some cooler water to get the temperature just right. Sprinkle the yeast on the surface and gently mix so that no clumps exist. Let sit for 15 minutes undisturbed. Measure the temperature of the yeast suspension. Measure the temperature of the juice. You do not want to add the yeast to your cool juice if the temperature difference exceeds 15 °F (8 °C). Acclimate your yeast by taking about 10 mL of the cold juice and adding it to the yeast suspension. Wait 15 minutes and measure the temperature again. Do this until you are within the specified temperature range.

7. When the yeast is ready, add it to the carboy and move the carboy to an area where the ambient temperature can be maintained at 55 °F (13 °C).

8. You should see signs of fermentation within about two to three days. This will appear as some foaming on the surface and the airlock will have bubbles moving through it. If the fermentation has not started by day four, you might consider warming the juice to 60–65 °F (16–18 °C) temporarily to stimulate the yeast. Once the fermentation starts, move back to the lower temperature. If that does not work, consider re-pitching the yeast as described above.

9. Dissolve the DAP in as little distilled water required to dissolve completely (usually ~20 mL). Add to the fermenting juice after the fermentation has started and is progressing noticeably.

10. Normally you would monitor the progress of the fermentation by measuring Brix. One of the biggest problems with making white wine at home is maintaining a clean fermentation. Entering the carboy to measure the sugar is a prime way to infect the fermentation with undesirable microbes. So at this point, the presence of noticeable fermentation is good enough. Leave well enough alone for about two weeks.

11. If your airlock becomes dirty by foaming over, remove it, clean it, and replace as quickly and cleanly as pos-

sible. Sanitize anything that will come in contact with the juice.

12. Assuming the fermentation has progressed, then after about two weeks, it is time to start measuring the sugar. Sanitize your thief; remove just enough liquid to for your hydrometer. Record your results. If greater than 7 °Brix, then wait another week before measuring. If less than 7 °Brix, begin measuring every other day.

13. Continue to measure the Brix every other day until you have two readings in a row that are negative and about the same.

14. Taste the wine, if there is no perception of sweetness, consider it dry and add 3 mL of 10% KMBS per gallon (0.8 mL per L). If there are any sulfide like (rotten egg) odors, rack the wine off the lees. If the wine smells good, then let the lees settle for about two weeks and stir them up (bâttonage). Repeat this every two weeks for eight weeks. This will be a total of four stirs. 15. After the second stir, check the SO2 and adjust to 30–35 ppm free.

16. After eight weeks, let the lees settle. At this point, the wine is going to be crystal clear or a little cloudy. If the wine is crystal clear, then that is great! If the wine is cloudy, then presumably, (if you have kept up with the SO2 additions and adjustments, temperature control, kept a sanitary environment, and there are no visible signs of a re-fermentation) this is most likely a protein haze and you have two options: Do nothing – it’s just aesthetics or clarify with bentonite.

17. While aging, test for SO2 and keep maintained at 30–35 ppm.

18. Once the wine is cleared, it is time to move it to the bottle. This would be about six months after the onset of fermentation. Keep in mind this wine has had the malolactic fermentation inhibited. If all has gone well to this point, given the quantity made, it can probably be bottled without filtration. Your losses during filtration could be significant. That said, maintain sanitary conditions while bottling, and you should have a fine example of a clean, crisp Verdejo that pairs well with lemon-based chicken or seafood dishes. Enjoy with friends!

Other winemaking considerations to ponder are the use of sur lie aging with bâttonage and the use of oak or oak products.

supplement may be necessary. The grapes generally come in at a pH around 3.8 and an acid of 0.55 g/L. The acidity and pH at harvest is very much influenced by soil type and rootstock. So for me, I always have an open mind when evaluating these parameters of the must. In my climate, other white grapes will come in with much higher pH values and lower acids, thus requiring a considerable acid supplement. With respect to Verdejo, a cursory glance tells us that the numbers are not bad and would probably be a nice wine if left alone. But I like a little crispness so I target to taste my whites with an acid level around 0.65 g/L and a general comfortability in driving the pH down a little bit. Therefore, I generally supplement with about a 1 g/L addition of tartaric acid at the crusher. I follow up after primary fermentation to make decisions on further acid supplement, if any is required. I tend to inhibit the malolactic fermentation (MLF) to preserve the acidity. I have toyed with MLF in the past on Verdejo grown in a vineyard

FILL YOUR PASSION.

BOTTLE FILLING MADE EASY!

block at UC-Davis, however I prefer the crisper version with grapes grown in California. That might be different in Virginia or Spain.

Now let’s consider the yeast. Hopefully you have read about some of the designer yeasts available because with respect to this variety, this can make a difference. I have done yeast trials with Verdejo and have found that the yeast QA23 (Lallemand) is the choice for me. Independent of the product literature, I found that this yeast fermented the most aromatic, clean, citrus-based flavors. I found that CY3079 (Lallemand) also produces wonderful aromatics, but I struggled at the end of the fermentation with some sulfide issues. That wasn’t the fault of the yeast; that was the winemaker. We all have our challenges. The take-home lesson on your yeast choice is to do your homework on them. They have to be happy to stay happy. It is your job as the winemaker to give them a reasonable juice to live in. Good sugar, good temperature control,

Scan

XF460 VOLUMETRIC

drew horton , Enology Specialist, University of Minnesota Grape Breeding & Enology Project

6x9” | illustrated | 614 pages

ISBN: 978-1-55065-563-6 $24.95 (trade paper)

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and the equivalent of three square meals a day.

Over the years since I first worked with Verdejo I have done some practice on aromatic whites and how winemakers work to enhance those aromatics through some skin contact; with or without the use of enzymes. Personally, I tend to shy away from any enzymatic intervention in that while these products are well studied by the manufacturers and their technical support specialists are very willing to help out, it goes against my belief of “minimal intervention winemaking.” Verdejo is a delicate grape with thin skins so it should not require a lot of intervention. Rather than using the word “press,” I like to call it de-juicing the must, using rice hulls as a pressing aid to improve juice yields in a series of small, light cycles of the press. Squeeze until the juice flow slows down, back off, and massage it again. When I see the pH of this juice fraction climbing it implies your job is done! Elevations in pH during pressing tell me that I am fracturing the skins too much, releasing potassium. Remember that in dry white wines it is very easy to notice some of the phenolic components from the skins, so in my world it’s best to go easy.

Other winemaking considerations to ponder are the use of sur lie aging with bâttonage and the use of oak or oak products. It’s something to consider but it’s good to weigh your options having successfully moved on from the fruit processing and fermentation stage. Sur lie with bâttonage can help improve your mouthfeel, but also consider some enhancements of vanilla and butterscotch flavors with oak products, which can also lead to improved mouthfeel. Maybe a combination of the two. Whatever I decide to do, it is always keeping the preservation of the aromatics in mind. Low temperatures (less than 55 °F/13 °C) go a long way in preserving aromatics.

So whatever happened to the Spanish Carrefour Express shopping trip that was reminiscent of the comic strip characters Pickles and Earl (A couple that love each other dearly, but sometimes go about their daily lives in their own world, connecting most of the time, but periods of disconnection exist and become laughable at a later

time)? Verdejo became our “go-to” white wine while we were visiting friends. We tried many styles — and it was fun. Our hosts, Jose and Edu, were not real big wine drinkers, but discovered something new and learned a lot about what is happening in the wine world nearby. They might as well have been living down the street from Disneyland having never visited their local Rueda wine country. For Polly and me, it was

a great experience to focus on after a month in France. The vineyard block at UC-Davis where the Verdejo was grown is now gone. Succumbing to a changing staff, environment, disease, and growing priorities for something that matures somewhat later in the fall season when class starts. If I could ever get my hands on some of these delicious wine grapes without having to move to Spain, I’d be all over it.

AND MALOLACTIC CULTURES

PIONEERING PREMIUM YEAST

ENTER YOUR BEST HOMEMADE WINES IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST COMPETITION FOR HOBBY WINEMAKERS!

DON’T WAIT — SEND YOUR ENTRIES NOW! ENTRY DEADLINE: MARCH 17, 2023

Enter your wines and compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in 50 categories awarded by a panel of experienced wine judges. You can gain international recognition for your winemaking skills and get valuable feedback on your wines from the competition’s judging panel.

Entry Deadline: March 17, 2023

5515 Main Street • Manchester Center, VT 05255 ph: (802) 362-3981 ext. 106 • fax: (802) 362-2377

email: competition@winemakermag.com

You can also enter online at: www.winemakercompetition.com

SPECIAL BEST OF SHOW MEDALS

Gene Spaziani Grand Champion Wine

WineMaker of the Year

will be awarded thanks to our award sponsors:

Best of Show Red

Retailer of the Year

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U-Vint of the Year

Best of Show Dessert

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LALLEMAND BREWING

Best of Show Mead

Best of Show Country Fruit

Best of Show Sparkling

Best of Show Estate Grown

Best of Show Kit/Concentrate

Category Medals (gold, silver, and bronze) will be awarded thanks to our category sponsors:

19.

34. Red Table Wine Blend (Any Grape Varieties)

35. Blush Table Wine Blend (Any Grape Varieties)

36. Grape & Non-Grape Table Wine Blend

37. Apple or Pear Varietals or Blends

38. Hard Cider or Perry

39. Stone Fruit (Peach, Cherry, Blends, etc.)

GLCC Co.

40. Berry Fruit (Strawberry, Raspberry, Blends, etc.)

GLCC Co.

41. Other Fruits

GLCC Co.

42. Traditional Mead

43. Fruit Mead

Moonlight Meadery

44. Herb and Spice Mead

45. Flower or Vegetable

46. Port Style

47. Sherry Style

48. Other Fortified

49. Sparkling Grape, Dry/Semi-Dry or Sweet

50. Sparkling Non-Grape

1. White Native American Varietal

2. White Native American Blend

3. Red Native American Varietal

4. Red Native American Blend

5. Blush/Rosé Native American

6. Red or White Native American Late Harvest and Ice Wine

7. White French-American Hybrid Varietal

8. White French-American Hybrid Blend 9. Red French-American Hybrid Varietal 10. Red French-American Hybrid Blend 11. Blush/Rosé French-American Hybrid

Red or White French-American Late Harvest and Ice Wine

Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris

Sauvignon Blanc

18. Other White Vinifera Varietals

White Vinifera Bordeaux

Other White Vinifera Blends

Franc

RULES & REGULATIONS

1. Entry deadline for wines to arrive is March 17, 2023

Wines are to be delivered to: Battenkill Communications

5515 Main Street

Manchester Center, VT 05255 Ph: (802) 362-3981

2. Send ONE (1) BOTTLE per entry. Still wines must be submitted in standard 750 ml wine bottles. Ice wines or late harvest wines can be submitted in 375 ml bottles. Meads and Hard Ciders can be submitted in 12 oz. or 22 oz. beer bottles. Sparkling wines must be in champagne bottles with proper closure and wire or crown cap. All bottles must be free of wax, decorative labels and capsules. However, an identification label will be required on the bottle as detailed in rule #5.

3. Entry fee is $30 U.S. dollars (or $30 Canadian dollars) for each wine entered. Each individual person is allowed up to a total of 15 entries. You may enter in as many categories as you wish. Make checks payable to WineMaker Only U.S. or Canadian funds will be accepted. On your check write the number of entries (no more than 15 total) and the name of the entrant if different from the name on the check. Entry fees are non-refundable.

4. All shipments should be packaged to withstand considerable handling and must be shipped freight pre-paid. Line the inside of the box with a plastic trash bag and use plenty of packaging material, such as bubble wrap, around the bottles. Bottles shipped in preformed styrofoam cartons have proven reliable in the past. Every reasonable effort will be made to contact entrants whose bottles have broken to make arrangements for sending replacement bottles. Please note it is illegal to ship alcoholic beverages via the U.S. Postal Service. FedEx Air and FedEx Ground will destroy all amateur wine shipments so do not use either of these services. Private shipping companies such as UPS with company policies against individuals shipping alcohol may refuse your shipment if they are informed your package contains alcoholic beverages. Entries mailed internationally are often required by customs to provide proper documentation. It is the entrant’s responsibility to follow all applicable laws and regulations. Packages with postage due or C.O.D. charges will be rejected.

5 Each bottle must be labeled with the following information: Your name, category number, wine ingredients, vintage.

Example: K. Jones, 9, 75% Baco Noir, 25% Foch, 2020. If you are using a wine kit for ingredients please list the brand and product name as the wine ingredients. Example: K.Jones, 22, Winexpert Selection International French Cabernet Sauvignon, 2021. A copy of the entry form, listing each of your wines entered, must accompany entry and payment.

6. It is entirely up to you to decide which of the 50 categories you should enter. You should enter each wine in the category in which you feel it will perform best. Wines must contain a minimum of 75% of designated type if entered as a varietal. Varietals of less than 75% must be entered as blends. To make sure all entries are judged fairly, the WineMaker staff may re-classify an entry that is obviously in the wrong category or has over 75% percentage of a specific varietal but is entered as a blend.

7. Wine kits and concentrate-based wines will compete side-by-side with fresh fruit and juice-based wines in all listed categories.

8. The origin of many Native American grapes is unknown due to spontaneous cross-breeding. For the purposes of this competition, however, the Native American varietal category will include, but is not limited to, the following grape families: Aestivalis, Labrusca, Riparia and Rotundifolia (muscadine).

9. For sparkling wine categories, dry/semidry is defined as <3% residual sugar and sweet as >3% residual sugar.

10. Contest is open to any amateur home winemaker. Your wine must not have been made by a professional commercial winemaker or at any commercial winery. No employee of WineMaker magazine may enter. Persons under freelance contract with Battenkill Communications are eligible. No person employed by a manufacturer of wine kits may enter. Winemaking supply retail store owners and their employees are eligible. Judges may not judge a category they have entered. Applicable entry fees and limitations shall apply.

11. All wines will be judged according to their relative merits within the category. Gold, silver and bronze medals within each category will be awarded on point totals and will not be restricted to the top three wines only (for example, a number of wines may earn enough points to win gold). The Best of Show awards will be those wines clearly superior within those stated catego-

KEY DATES

Entry deadline for wines to arrive in Vermont: March 17, 2023

Wines judged: April 21-23, 2023

Results first announced at the WineMaker Magazine Conference in Eugene, Oregon June 3, 2023

(Results posted June 4, 2023 on winemakermag.com)

ries. The Grand Champion award is given to the top overall wine in the entire competition.

12. The Winemaker of the Year award will be given to the individual whose top 5 scoring wine entries have the highest average judging score among all entrants.

13. The Club of the Year, Retailer of the Year and U-Vint of the Year awards will be based on the following point scale: Gold Medal (or any Best of Show medal): 3 points

Silver Medal: 2 points

Bronze Medal: 1 point

The amateur club that accumulates the most overall points from its members’ wine entries will win Club of the Year. The home winemaking retail store that accumulates the most overall points from its customers’ wine entries will win Retailer of the Year. The U-Vint or On-Premise winemaking facility that accumulates the most overall points from its customer’s wine entries will win U-Vint of the Year.

14. The Best of Show Estate Grown award will be given to the top overall scoring wine made with at least 75% fruit grown by the entrant. Both grape and country fruit wines are eligible.

15. All entrants will receive a copy of the judging notes for their wines. Medalists will be listed by category online.

16. All wine will become the property of WineMaker magazine and will not be released after the competition.

17. All decisions by competition organizers and judges are final.

Deadline: March 17, 2023

Entry Fee: $30 (U.S.) or $30 (Canadian) per wine entered

Number of entries _____ x $30 (US) or $30 (CD) = $________Total (limit of 15 entries per person)

q Enclosed is a check made out to “WineMaker” in the amount of $_________.

Name___________________________________________________________________________

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E-Mail____________________________________________________________________________

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Wine Ingredients and Percentage: Please list fruit varieties and percentages used in each wine. Example: “75% Baco Noir, 25% Foch.” If you are using a wine kit for ingredients, please list the brand and product name as the wine ingredients.

Example: “Winexpert Selection International French Cabernet Sauvignon.”

Wine 1 Entered:

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Are at least 75% of the ingredients grown by you? q yes q no q I feel it necessary to decant this wine_______hours before serving.

Wine 2 Entered:

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Wine 3 Entered:

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ENTRY FORM

Please note that you can also enter online at:

winemakercompetition.com

Remember that each winemaker can enter up to 15 wines. If entering more than eight wines, please photocopy this entry form. Entry shipment includes ONE BOTTLE of wine per entry. 750 ml bottle required for still wines. Ice or late harvest wines can ship in 375 ml bottles. Still meads can ship in 12 oz. or 22 oz. beer bottles. Sparkling wines must ship in champagne bottles with proper closure and wire or crown cap.

Send entry form and wine to:

Battenkill Communications

5515 Main Street

Manchester Center, VT 05255

Ph: 802-362-3981 • Fax: 802-362-2377

E-mail: competition@winemakermag.com

If entered online at winemakercompetition. com, please print a copy of your entry form and send it along with your wine.

Wine 5 Entered:

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Wine 6 Entered:

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Wine 7 Entered:

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Wine 4 Entered:

Category Number___________________________________________________________

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Are at least 75% of the ingredients grown by you? q yes q no q I feel it necessary to decant this wine_______hours before serving.

Enter online at: winemakercompetition.com

Vintage ______________________________________________________

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Wine 8 Entered:

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Putting your wine through cold and heat stabilization

by Dwayne Bershaw

e’ve all heard that great wines are made in the vineyard, and there is a lot of truth to that saying. It’s impossible to make high-quality wine if you’re starting with damaged or unripe fruit. Grape growing, harvesting, and fermentation are sort of the sexy part of wine production and thus these activities often come to mind first when we consider what winemaking is all about. Still, there are a group of activities that occur once the wine has been fermented that are also critical to quality wine production, especially for white wines. These processes and checks involve the chemical and microbial stability of wine. Once primary and malolactic fermentation are completed, chemical and microbial stability are the main concerns of the winemaker prior to final clarification, filtration, and packaging. I covered microbial stability in depth in the October-November 2022 issue, so this go-round we’re going to focus our discussion on heat and cold stability.

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

Before we dive into heat and cold stability perhaps it’s important to discuss what is at stake in terms of wine quality. Both heat and cold stability issues produce aesthetic defects in wine; they impact how the wine looks in the glass but not how the wine smells or tastes. Cold stability problems may slightly impact flavor by changing the acidity of the wine by a few tenths of a gram per liter — usually an imperceptible amount. There are some exceptions to this rule that we’ll discuss later. Heat stability problems don’t have any impact on the aroma or taste of wine. So, as a home winemaker are these stability issues important? The answer is literally in the eye of the beholder. Commercial winemakers are concerned about these defects because consumers and distributors may reject products with haze or sediment as unfamiliar and potentially faulty. The haze or sediment formed by heat instability looks the same as that formed by microbial instability (refermentation in bottle or microbial spoilage), so there is some potential quality concern if you’re a retailer trying to sell hazy wine. Consumers have also had limited experience with haze in wine, and a hazy wine may not be what they are hoping to post in their Instagram feed.

Still, in the craft beer movement there has been a sea change in acceptability of hazy products. Very hazy beers are even strongly desired in some styles like New England IPA. The natural wine movement has also shown that some consumers are willing to accept what used to be considered aesthetic flaws when the winemaker can explain how their limited intervention in the winemaking process has led to a product with fewer additions and “manipulations.” The rediscovery of ancient wine styles like orange wines have also influenced our notions of acceptability with regard to wine clarity. So, as a home winemaker the choice is yours, but understanding the causes and processing options around heat and cold stability will give you the knowledge to choose what is best for your wines. Let’s explore these instability issues in detail.

HEAT (PROTEIN) STABILITY

Heat stability is also known as protein stability, because the levels of certain proteins in wine seem to be the main contributing factor in whether this particular instability may occur. Proteins in wine mostly come from the grape berries themselves, but may also be added when yeast autolysis occurs or when protein-based fining agents such as gelatin and egg whites are utilized in the winemaking process. Proteins are long polymers of amino acids. Each amino acid has a unique side chain, a branch of the molecule that is not part of the polymer backbone. These side chains contain chemical groups that can carry partial electrical charges, or may contain many carbon atoms or aromatic rings with no charge at all. The amino acid side chains and their placement in the protein backbone chain control their attraction or repulsion to other amino acids in the chain, as well as their hydrophilic or hydrophobic nature to the solution surrounding them. The interplay between these forces creates the three-dimensional structure of the protein.

The structure of a protein is instrumental in protein signaling and function, but also protects the hydrophobic parts of the amino acid side chains from the water and other ions in solution. Most proteins found in wine have an overall slightly positive charge because of the relatively low pH levels, and thus tend to repel other proteins in the solution.

The complicated three-dimensional structure of proteins are somewhat delicate, and protein structure may become unstable if solution temperature is increased, thus the reason why protein stability is also known as heat stability. Ethanol and pH changes can also impact protein stability, and some wines may throw a protein haze in bottle even without experiencing high temperatures. When proteins are no longer able to maintain their three-dimensional shape they tend to agglomerate together because of the partially charged and hydrophobic parts of their amino acid structure. As the disrupted proteins aggregate they become too large to be held in solution

and they precipitate out of solution as a wispy, amorphous solid.

Heat stability is usually only a concern in white and rosé wine production where the haze and sediment formed from heat instability are more noticeable. Besides being darker and thus any haze is less likely to be noticeable, red wines contain tannin polymers extracted from skins, which are absent or at low levels in whites and rosés. Tannin polymers contain many hydroxide units in their structure that take on a slightly negative charge and thus attract the slightly positively charged proteins. This protein-tannin matrix, like agglomerated proteins, becomes large and precipitates from solution during the winemaking and aging process so there is little protein left to form a haze in aged red wines with appreciable tannin levels.

HEAT STABILITY TESTING

It is difficult to predict protein levels in wines. Different grape varieties contain differing levels of protein. Some varieties such as Grüner Veltliner are known to produce high levels of protein haze, while other varieties produce low levels. Vine nutrient status and cropping level also play a role in juice protein content, so it is usually necessary to test the protein stability of each wine lot each vintage.

The most common protein stability test is a heat test. A small sample of wine is sterile filtered, then heated to a particular temperature for a set period of time. The sample is then cooled and measured for turbidity to determine if proteins have denatured and caused a haze to develop. A common time and temperature regime is to heat the wine to 176 °F (80 °C) for two hours. Wine analysis laboratories use a temperature-controlled water bath, but a crock pot set to the high temperature setting is an inexpensive alternative. Accurate turbidity measurement requires a turbidity meter, but a home winemaker could also judge acceptable haze levels by sight. Large commercial producers shoot for haze levels below 1 NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit), which is brilliantly clear to my eye. Small producers are willing to accept higher haze

levels, perhaps 2–5 NTUs, or simply gauge the haziness and acceptability by sight. As long as the product is not appreciably hazy following the heat test a winemaker may be satisfied that the wine is protein stable. It’s important to stress that the wine sample must be filtered clear prior to the heat test, otherwise it is impossible to judge whether haze observed after the heat test is coming from particles in the original sample or haze generated by denatured proteins.

HEAT STABILITY TREATMENT

The most common treatment for wines with appreciable protein haze is fining with bentonite. Bentonite is a type of clay that is mined, kilned to remove impurities, and sold as a grainy powder. On a microscopic level bentonite consists of sheet-like particles with a large surface area. The sheets possess a slight negative charge, and thus attract the slightly positively charged proteins to their surface. Bentonite is insoluble in wine, eventually settling on the bottom of the storage vessel. When the clean wine is racked off the bentonite lees the proteins remain with the lees and are thus removed.

Unfortunately, bentonite is not selective for removing only protein, so over-fining with bentonite can actually strip aromas from wine. Because of this potential for over-fining it’s important to perform benchtop trials at varying bentonite addition rates, then perform a heat test on the trial samples to determine the optimum level of bentonite addition. In the U.S., bentonite addition rates have traditionally been displayed in units of pounds per thousand gallons (#/1Kgal). Most wines respond very well to addition rates of 0–4 #/1Kgal, but wines occasionally require up to 8–10 #/1Kgal to achieve stability. Chart 1 shows a typical bentonite fining trial result from a commercial laboratory. The control wine is slightly unstable, with a heat test NTU of 5.1, but the lowest addition at 1.0 #/1Kgal produces a heat stable wine. Increasing addition rates above 1.0 are unnecessary and unwarranted for this wine due to potential flavor stripping

CHART 1: Impact of bentonite additions on wine

at high bentonite addition rates.

When performing a bentonite fining trial combined with the heat test, it should be stressed again that each sample must be filtered to clarity prior to performing the heat test. This means that all the bentonite added must be filtered out, otherwise the increasing rates of bentonite addition will cause increasing haziness in the finished sample.

Bentonite must be properly hydrated in hot water, never wine, to prevent clumping and maximize the surface area of the clay sheets for attraction of protein. I’ve found the best method is to slowly mix the bentonite into water while vigorously stirring — a stir plate and stir bar work well for small volumes. Some instructions from bentonite suppliers recommend allowing the bentonite to hydrate for 24 hours before addition. When adding the bentonite slurry to the wine the entire tank should be mixed or pumped over in a loop to ensure the bentonite has access to all the protein in the wine. The adsorption of proteins onto the bentonite surface is very fast, but bentonite settles relatively slowly, and may make a “fluffy,” uncompacted lees layer. Because bentonite is inert and not an energy source for microbial metabolism it may be left in the tank for a long period of time prior to racking with no deleterious impact. Thus some winemakers perform bentonite fining and traditional cold stabilization at the same time because they feel the bitartrate crystals help compact the bentonite lees, and there is no penalty for long contact of the

wine with bentonite.

As a final thought on heat stability, some winemakers add a low amount of bentonite prophylactically during the juice settling stage after pressing, with the hope that little to no additional bentonite will be needed once fermentation is complete. These winemakers believe a juice addition of bentonite has less impact on wine aromatics than later additions when fermentation is complete.

COLD (BITARTRATE) STABILITY

Cold stability is also known as bitartrate stability (sometimes shortened to just tartrate stability) because this stability issue involves the formation and precipitation of potassium bitartrate crystals in wine. Like heat stability, bitartrate stability is primarily a visual defect. However, bitartrate crystallization and precipitation does impact the titratable acidity of wine by lowering the amount of bitartrate ions in solution, and may drive the wine pH higher or lower, depending on the pH prior to crystallization. These acidity impacts are usually minor, but may be a concern when wine pH is very high or extraordinarily large quantities of crystals are formed.

Bitartrate crystals often look like sea salt crystals, but may also appear as sandy clumps, and usually contain some of the same color as the wine. Savvy wine consumers don’t mind a few bitartrate crystals in their wine, often referring to crystals which form on red wine corks as wine diamonds. In white wines however, large commercial producers worry that some consumers may mistake the crystals

Example of commercial laboratory heat stability results with typical response to increasing bentonite addition rates.

for glass shards, or that consumers may simply be uncomfortable with solid particles floating around the bottom of their glass.

Potassium bitartrate has a slightly acidic, slightly salty taste and is used in baking, labeled as cream of tartar, to stabilize meringues and whipped cream. Bitartrate crystal formation in wine is a complex chemical and physical phenomenon with many factors impacting crystal growth and precipitation. The process begins with a super-saturated solution of bitartrate ions and potassium ions. Both potassium and bitartrate ions are found in grape berries. Bitartrate ions are one of the forms of tartaric acid, which is often the most plentiful acid in grapes. Tartaric acid exists in different forms in solution depending on the pH. At typical wine pH the majority of the tartaric acid is in the bitartrate (HT- form). Potassium ions are found in berry pulp but are also quite prevalent in grape skins, so wines with skin contact often have higher levels of potassium.

Supersaturation in liquid solutions occur when there is more of a solid solute in solution than the solubility equilibrium for the solute. Supersaturation commonly occurs due to temperature change. The process of making rock candy is an example of this phenomena. Sugar, the solid solute, is supersaturated in a water solution by dissolving the sugar when the water is boiling. When the water cools the sugar is supersatured, and placing a stick into the solution will cause the sugar to crystallize and precipitate onto the surface of the stick. Besides temperature effects on solubility, the addition of other liquid solvents to a solution may also impact solubility. In wines potassium bitartrate solubility equilibrium is lowered with increasing ethanol content, thus fermentation increases the potential for supersaturation of potassium bitartrate.

The next steps in potassium bitartrate precipitation are growth of a crystal structure. In order for the crystal to be formed it must have a nucleation site that lowers the energy needed to begin crystal formation. Small solid particles in solution

FIGURE 1: Possible reactions impacting bitartrate stability

Proposed Nucleation Inhibitors Mannoproteins

Proposed Crystal Growth Fouling

Mannoproteins Polysaccharides

Proteins Anthocyanins

Potassium Polyaspartate

(like grape solids) are good nucleation sites, as well as perturbations in solid surfaces, thus crystals often form on the surface of tanks, barrels, bottles, or corks. Once a crystal begins formation at a nucleation site the rate of crystal growth must be greater than the rate of crystal deconstruction in order for crystal growth to occur. To grow the crystal structure large enough to be seen there must be availability of more potassium bitartrate molecules in the vicinity of the crystal edge, and the dissolved potassium bitartrate must connect onto the crystal surface in the exact geometry that continues the crystalline structure of the growing crystal.

Wine is a complex chemical solution, and potassium bitartrate crystallization may be impacted by interactions with other molecules and macromolecules. Figure 1 displays a detail of the chemistry involved in the formation of potassium bitartrate from potassium and bitartrate ions (on the left side of the image), as well as the steps in crystal growth and eventual precipitation of solid potassium bitartrate crystals (on the right side of the image).

This figure also shows some of the interactions that occur in solution between ionic species and other molecules, and some of the molecules and macromolecules thought to inhibit crystal formation or growth. These

Nucleation-Crystal Growth Begins

interactions make it difficult to predict bitartrate stability in wine simply by measuring the quantity of potassium and bitartrate ions in solution. Complexing of ionic species with anthocyanins is thought to be the reason why bitartrate precipitation occurs more slowly in red wines. Another example of these interactions is crystal growth fouling and nucleation inhibition caused by proteins and mannoproteins from yeast autolysis, which is thought to be the reason why wines aged on yeast lees have enhanced bitartrate stability. Scientists have utilized these inhibitory interactions to propose new additives for promoting bitartrate stability, which will be discussed next.

ACHIEVING BITARTRATE STABILITY

Given the number of factors involved in potassium bitartrate precipitation there are also several different methods for achieving tartrate stability (see Figure 2 on page 30). Starting at the bottom left of the figure is the classic method for achieving bitartrate stability, the formation and removal of crystals prior to bottling. Because potassium bitartrate solubility is strongly influenced by temperature, if wine is stored for a period of time at a temperature well below its expected future storage temperature prior to consumption, then the amount of bi-

Ion Surface Diffusion

Surface IntegrationCrystal Building

Potassium bitartrate precipitation and possible reactions impacting bitartrate stability.

FIGURE 2: Methods to achieve

tartrate crystals formed in the storage vessel should deplete the potassium bitartrate concentration sufficiently to ensure more crystals will not precipitate in the future. The wine is then removed from the bitartrate crystals in the storage vessel by racking or filtering the wine while it is still cold.

To achieve bitartrate stability commercial winemakers often shoot for a temperature goal of around 26–28 °F (-3 to -2 °C) for one to six weeks. Some winemakers speed up the process by lowering the temperature and/or adding potassium bitartrate as a crystal seeding agent while mixing. Standard rates of seeding addition are quite high: Somewhere between 1–4 g/L. In cold climates tank cooling may be assisted by outside winter temperatures, but in warm climates the energy cost for cooling large tanks is quite high. Commercial technologies are often used in these areas; such as crystallizers that quickly promote crystal growth and then the crystals are removed.

Speaking of commercial technologies, large commercial producers also have the option of using electrodialysis or ion exchange to remove the ionic species responsible for crystal formation (upper left box in Figure 2). This has the benefit of a limited waste stream, low sensory impact on the treated wine, and it can be performed at cellar temperatures — eliminating

the huge energy costs required with the traditional method.

When potassium bitartrate crystals are removed from solution in traditional cold stabilization there is an impact on the pH and titratable acidity (TA) of the wine. For wines below pH 3.7, usually the case for white and rosé wines, the pH shifts lower by 0.1–0.2 pH units and the TA may drop 1–2 g/L. This generally does not have a large impact on taste or microbial stability. If the pH is greater than 3.7, however, the pH change will actually shift up, potentially leading to microbial concerns, while the TA drops, perhaps impacting the perception of tartness in the wine. For this reason, high-pH wines may be treated with tartaric acid additions prior to cold stabilization in order to maintain adequate pH and acidity after the cold hold process.

As mentioned earlier, several winemaking additives have been developed and approved for use in bitartrate stabilization. These additives either inhibit crystal formation, or cause fouling of the crystal surface to limit their size, thus the crystals don’t become large enough to precipitate (see box in the upper right of Figure 2). Like electrodialysis, these additives have the benefit of providing bitartrate stability without the time and energy cost involved in the traditional cold hold method. These

stability enhancers also will not impact the pH and titratable acidity of the wine.

The polysaccharide harvested from acacia trees known as gum arabic has a long track record as an additive to help promote colloidal stability, and in some cases bitartrate stability when used with metatartaric acid. However, the bitartrate stability enhancement of gum arabic does not appear to work for all wines, and metatartaric acid provides only temporary stability, so additive suppliers began looking for other alternatives. Mannoproteins derived from yeast cells and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), a polysaccharide derived from plant fiber, are two more recent alternatives for bitartrate stability (approved for use in 2011 and 2012). CMC is probably one of the most common bitartrate stability additives in use in commercial production, and home winemakers may find both mannoprotein and CMC additives online. CMC has the advantage of being more shelf-stable than mannoprotein once opened, but some winemakers believe mannoproteins are more natural, since they are derived from yeast. CMC is not recommended for red wines, and mannoprotein application in rosé and red wines is also tricky, with complicated instructions for correct dosing, so suppliers have kept looking for new additives that can be utilized in all wine types.

A new bitartrate stabilizer with universal application is potassium polyaspartic acid (KPA). KPA is a polymer of aspartic acid, an amino acid common in plants and animals. KPA, like CMC, is long-lasting in wine, thus providing long-term bitartrate stability, but has the added benefit of working well with rosé and red wines. KPA was approved for use in commercial wines in 2020. I haven’t seen this additive in home winemaking shops yet, but as its use expands I expect it to become more readily available.

All of the bitartrate stabilization additives mentioned should be added a few days before final filtration and bottling if sterile filtration is desired. An important precaution is that wines must be free of haze and protein- and

bitartrate stability

Methods to achieve bitartrate stability in wine.

color-stable prior to their addition, otherwise the bitartrate stabilization agents may interact with the unstable components in the wine to produce a sediment.

TESTING FOR BITARTRATE STABILITY

The multifaceted phenomena of bitartrate crystal formation makes testing for bitartrate stability complicated since both potassium bitartrate formation and crystallization kinetics are involved. One of the most common methods of determining stability, however, is quite simple and is known as the cold hold test. As a first look at bitartrate stability the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) recommends a cold hold test for 3 days at 25 °F (-4 °C). This temperature is unfortunately colder than the common refrigerator temperature setting (~40 °F/4 °C), but warmer than the common freezer setting ~0 °F (-18 °C). The danger of using a refrigerator temperature setting for the cold hold test, even if extending

the hold time to a week or longer, is that stability will be overestimated and bitartrate crystals may still form as the wine ages. The danger of using the freezer test is that the freezing phase change is a very aggressive test and will therefore underestimate the real-world stability of the wine. Many consumers often hold white wines in the refrigerator for a few days or weeks prior to consumption, but most don’t freeze wine prior to consumption unless they forget a quickchilling bottle in the freezer!

change in conductivity over time. As potassium and bitartrate ions crystallize and precipitate out of the solution the conductivity of the sample will drop, so a large percentage change in conductivity indicates the sample is bitartrate unstable.

COLD AND HEAT STABILITY SUMMARY

Methods for producing protein- and bitartrate-stable wines may initially seem complicated, but most winemakers develop a processing strategy and testing methodology that works for them over time. Their strategy is developed using the tools they have on hand and matching that to the wine styles they produce. If you’re unhappy with sediment in your finished wines your first job is to understand where the solids are coming from. Once you know the source you can try tweaking your winemaking with some of the ideas or products suggested until you also find a process, additive, and analysis protocol that works for you. Join

So, perhaps a mini-fridge set to a very cold setting, or a long refrigerator test may be the best method of checking stability for the home winemaker. Large commercial producers need stability answers more quickly and precisely, so they utilize a special test apparatus that measures the conductivity of a small sample. The testing cell holds the wine sample at a constant low temperature, automatically adds potassium bitartrate as a seeding agent, and then continuously stirs the sample while measuring the

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WINE KITS 2022 OF

This past April, experienced judges evaluated a total of 403 wine kit entries as part of the overall 2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition that had a grand total of 1,772 entries. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the competition from across North America. The 403 wine kit entries were entered into over 30 di erent categories and represented a broad selection of varietals and blends from all major kit manufacturers. Over the course of three days, wine judging panels examined all entries, both kit and non-kit, using the University of California-Davis 20-point wine scale giving their scores on appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and overall impression. All judging was done blind, meaning those evaluating each entry were given a pre-poured glass of wine with absolutely no identification attached except a tracking number. The judges had no idea whether the entry was made from a kit or fresh fruit. All the judges knew about each entry was the category entered. Entries were awarded gold, silver, bronze, and Best of Show medals based on the average score given by the judging panel. A full rundown of the 2022 medalists can be found at: https://winemakermag.com/competition/22compresults

We’ve found many WineMaker readers looking to purchase a wine kit would refer back to each year’s competition results as a third-party list of specific wine kits that scored well in the blind judging and thus are capable of producing an award-winning wine. 15 years ago we decided to go one step further and put the spotlight on the top 100 scoring kits from the competition. What follows is the 2022 ranking based on the average scores given by judges of the top performing kit entries this year. By extending all the judging scores out to the furthest decimal point we were able to compile this ranked list of those kit entries that had the highest average scores in the 2022 competition from among the 403 kit entries.

This kit list represents the top 100 scoring kit entries with the highest average scores from 2022 that have shown the potential in a blind judging format to make excellent wines. We organized these top kits not only in numerical order, but also broken out into general wine style categories for easy reference. Cheers!

Top 100 Wine Kits By Varietal/Wine Style

Note: Top 100 rank listed in parentheses

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

Winexpert Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (53)

Finer Wine Kits Forte Series Cabernet Sauvignon (70)

Winexpert Eclipse Three Moons California Italian Australian Cabernet Sauvignon (71)

MERLOT

Winexpert Private Reserve Napa Valley Stag’s Leap Merlot (47)

Mosti Mondiale L’Originale Merlot (79)

RJS Craft Winemaking Grand Cru Merlot (93)

Finer Wine Kits Tavola Series Lodi Merlot (94)

ABC Cork Co. Fontana Washington State Merlot (99)

VineCo Passport Series Merlot (100)

PINOT NOIR

Winexpert Private Reserve Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Noir (87)

RJS Craft Winemaking California Pinot Noir (91)

ZINFANDEL

Finer Wine Kits Forte Series Zinfandel (40)

Winexpert Private Reserve Zinfandel (65)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Winery Series Italian Zinfandel (73)

VineCo Signature Series Zinfandel (88)

OTHER RED VARIETALS

Winexpert Classic Italian Sangiovese (28)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cabernet Franc (33)

Winexpert Private Reserve Odyssey Barossa Valley Australian Shiraz (44)

Winexpert Selection Chilean Carménère (48)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Winery Series Malbec (58)

Winexper t Reserve Spanish Tempranillo (72)

Winexpert Private Reserve Australian Grenache (74)

Winexpert Limited Edition Italian Nerello (77)

Winexpert Private Reserve Piedmont Nebbiolo (90)

Winexper t Private Reserve Italian Dolcetto (95)

Mosti Mondiale L’Originale Nero D’Avola (98)

RED BLENDS

Winexpert Limited Edition Grenache Tannat Shiraz (10)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Italian Super Tuscan (14)

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Syrah (18)

Winexpert Limited Edition Pacific Quartet (19)

Master Vintner Winemaker’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (22)

Winexpert Limited Edition Black Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon Gamay Noir (25)

Winexpert Selection Luna Rossa (31)

VineCo Estate Series Italian Primo Rosso (35)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Winery Series Spain Grenache Syrah (39)

Winexpert Selection Vieux Chateau du Roi (41)

Winexpert Classic Diablo Rojo (51)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Winery

Series Italian Valpola (59)

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur Winery Series Italian Amarone (62)

Winexpert Private Reserve Boomerang Red (66)

Winexpert Private Reserve Bordeaux Style Languedoc Blend (81)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Okanagan Valley Meritage (97)

CHARDONNAY

Wild Grapes Premium Australian Chardonnay (30)

RJS Craft Winemaking Grand Cru Chardonnay (36)

Winexpert Private Reserve Dry Creek Sonoma Chardonnay (50)

VineCo Original Series California Chardonnay (67)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru International California Chardonnay (89)

MUSCAT

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru California Moscato (37)

Winexper t Classic California Moscato (69)

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Spain Muscat (82)

PINOT GRIGIO/GRIS

Winexpert Washington Pinot Gris (8)

Master Vintner Winemaker’s Reserve Pinot Grigio (34)

VineCo Original Series Italian Pinot Grigio (60)

RIESLING

Winexpert Classic Washington Riesling (5) Master Vintner Winemaker’s Reserve Riesling (20)

VineCo Original Series Washington Riesling (76)

SAUVIGNON BLANC

Winexpert Marlborough New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (12)

Winexpert Limited Edition New Zealand Fumé Blanc (21)

Winexpert Private Reserve California Sauvignon Blanc (49)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Select Sauvignon Blanc (68)

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Sauvignon Blanc (85)

OTHER WHITE VARIETALS

Winexpert Eclipse Mosel Valley Gewürztraminer (17)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru International German Müller-Thurgau (32)

WHITE BLENDS

Winexpert Limited Edition Synergy (46)

Winexpert Limited Edition Torrontés Muscat (54)

Winexper t Limited Edition California Yolo County Chardonnay Muscat Chenin Blanc (61)

Winexpert Limited Edition Symphony Gewürztraminer (83)

BLUSH/ROSÉ

Winexpert World Vineyard Pink Moscato (45)

RJS Craft Winemaking Restricted Quantities France Rosé (57)

LATE HARVEST & ICE WINE STYLE

Winexpert Après Riesling Ice Wine (1)

Winexpert Late Harvest Riesling (38)

DESSERT STYLE

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty Crème Brûlée (3)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty Limited Release Coffee Dessert Wine (9)

Winexpert Speciale Peppermint Mocha Dessert (11)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty Black Forest Dessert (13)

Winexpert Après Peach Ice Wine (15)

Winexpert Après Chocolate Raspberry Dessert

Wine (16)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty Toasted Caramel (24)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty Vanilla Fig Dessert (26)

RJS Craft Winemaking Raspberry Mocha

Dessert Wine (29)

Winexpert Après Toasted Marshmallow Dessert (52)

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty White Chocolate Dessert Wine (56)

GRAPE & NON-GRAPE BLENDS

RJS Craft Winemaking Orchard Breezin’ Seville Orange Sangria (42)

Winexpert Island Mist Blood Orange Sangria (43)

Winexper t Island Mist Green Apple Riesling (80)

Winexper t Island Mist Raspberry Peach Sangria (84)

NON-GRAPE COUNTRY WINES

Vintner’s Best Mango (2)

RJS Craft Winemaking Orchard Breezin’ Peach Perfection (4)

Winexpert Island Mist Blueberry (6)

RJS Craft Winemaking Orchard Breezin’ Acai Raspberry (7)

Winexpert Island Mist Black Cherry (23)

Vintner’s Best Cherry (27)

Vintner’s Harvest Blackberry (55)

Winexpert Island Mist Coconut Yuzu (63)

Winexpert Island Mist Kiwi Pear (64)

Winexpert Island Mist White Cranberry (75)

Vintner’s Best Blood Orange (78)

RJS Craft Winemaking Orchard Breezin’ Strawberry Sensation (86)

VineCo Niagara Mist Mango Passion Fruit (92)

Vintner’s Best Dandelion (96)

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

by Dawson Raspuzzi

aking wine from a kit of concentrated juice is a great way for those curious about dipping their toes into the hobby of winemaking to create their first batch. With the exception of adding water, the kit includes all of the ingredients needed to make a fantastic wine by simply following the included instructions. But kits are not just for newbies. They offer the opportunity to make wines year-round and many longtime winemakers who grow or buy grapes for their wine each fall also turn to kit winemaking during the slower months of their hobby.

While kit manufacturers always recommend following the directions (for good reason — the kits were designed to result in success every time if made correctly) home winemakers are a curious and experimental bunch by nature. This often leads to exploration and adjustments outside of the directions — from fermentation temperature, aging times, or the amount of water added, to changing up yeasts, adding ingredients not called for, and much more. Dessert wine kits are some of the most fun to play with, as these kits are almost begging to be

fortified to enhance the Port-style nature and add a whole new dimension of complexity to the sweet base.

A large percentage of the entries into the Port Style and other dessert categories of the WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition each year are made from kits (and, as you’ll see in our “Top 100 Wine Kits” feature on pages 32-35 of this issue, they do very well). Though the list in our Top 100 are the highest scoring wines made 100% from kits and leave out another block of entrants made with kit wine bases that are then modified. These entries are some of the most fun that we see each year as you never know what an amateur winemaker will think of adding. We’ve seen additions of fruit juices, a gamut of liquors and spirits, chocolate, blended kits, and on and on.

If you have thought about modifying your own dessert kit wines but aren’t sure where to start, we’ve got you covered. We reached out to three top amateur winemakers with a wide array of winemaking experiences to pick their brains about how they have gone about dessert kit wine modifications that earned medals in our 2022 competition.

MIKE DAULT lives in Edgewood, Kentucky, where he maintains a small backyard vineyard of Cabernet Franc vines and is a member of the home winemaking Cincinnati Vintners Club. His winemaking focus the past four years has been fruit and Port-style wines, resulting in three Best Of Show awards during that time and being named the 2021 Winemaker of the Year in the WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition.

How did you get into making dessert kit wines?

I started making dessert wine in 2013 with a hazelnut kit I got while visiting Canada. I love hazelnut coffee and was excited to try it. I drank the last bottle from that batch last year and was not disappointed.

How many dessert kit wines have you made? Of those, how many have you strayed from the directions to create a unique wine from?

After the success of the hazelnut wine I began making two or more different types of dessert kit wines per year — so I’ve made about 20 by now. I didn’t start deviating from the manufacturer instruction until after about five years as I was really happy with the taste of the wines without intervention.

Any recommendations for those who have never strayed from the directions before we jump into your own experiences?

I would make a few by following the directions so you have a base to work from and can familiarize yourself with the kit-making process. Once you feel comfortable, then I would start with breaking the 3-gallon (9.5-L) kits into three 1-gallon (3.8-L) batches and try different yeasts/or alcohol additions like different brandies or Everclear in different amounts.

What types of significant changes have you made to dessert-style wine kits?

The common changes I’ve made are different yeast, alcohol additions, and fermentation temperature. I may occasionally do a chaptalization or blend different dessert wine kits like

caramel and raspberry chocolate or even coffee dessert together.

Take me through the planning and trial process you go through when you decide to stray from the kit instructions.

I review my notes from previous batches made to see what really worked or if I might try some change in the future. As mentioned, breaking into separate fermentations provides an easy way to tell what works for you and what doesn’t, and since they are just 1-gallon (3.8-L), it doesn’t hurt so much if an experiment doesn’t work out.

When fortifying a dessert wine, what types of fortifiers have you used, and at what quantities would you recommend?

I first tried Everclear in 2017; however, it was too hot (strong alcohol taste). I then switched to different types of brandy and found 300–500 mL a good amount for a 3-gallon (9.5-L) batch or 100–165 mL for 1-gallon (3.8-L) batches. Starting on the low end is smart because you can always add more. I remember experimenting with vanilla flavored brandy and while it tasted nice with a caramel dessert kit, it didn’t taste or blend well with raspberry or orange chocolate dessert kits.

When comparing your fortified versions vs. the ones where you follow the directions to a T, what are your impressions of one versus the other?

The fortification seems to give it a bit more “depth” in flavor. And I think aging a few years help the brandy and wine blend together more, resulting in a better overall taste.

What types of temperature and yeast strain adjustments have you made, and what impact have they had?

I used to have issues with stuck fermentations in my basement in the winter. So I outfitted a small closet with a table lamp as the heater controlled by a temperature controller. With the temperature set at 75 °F (24 °C) I have not run into any more issue. As far as yeasts, EC1118 is a re-

liable workhorse and I recently won 2022 Best of Show Dessert with it in a raspberry chocolate kit. My second most popular choice is Premier Cuvee, 71B for fruit Port-styles. Other yeasts I tried are RC212 and ICV D80, which have also yielded gold medals and great tasting wines.

How long do you recommend aging dessert wine kits?

I like to age 8–12 months in a carboy, transferring every four months and adding 1⁄8 tsp. of metabisulfite at each transfer. I then age in the bottle for another year.

Have you attempted “dessert-style” wines starting from a table wine kit? And how do those compare to starting with dessert-style kits?

I have attempted to make dessertstyle wines from Chambourcin grapes after tasting a really nice Chambourcin dessert wine from a winery in Tennessee. Unfortunately, my error was in not realizing that you need to add sugar to backsweeten the wine. About 1¼ cups of sugar per gallon (3.8 L) of wine will help improve the taste after adding 175 mL of brandy. I have followed the similar recipe for black currant, blackberry, and blueberry, and may try a peach this year. Last year I decided to make my own raspberry chocolate Port and poured 4 oz. of Torani sugar-free chocolate syrup into a 3-gallon (9.5-L) raspberry fruit wine after fermentation was complete and added 500 mL of XO Brandy to make it into a Port-style. We will see at next year’s competition how it does.

What is your biggest success story for a dessert kit wine you have made adjustments to?

Since raspberry chocolate is my favorite tasting dessert wine, it would have to be the 2019 raspberry chocolate that took Best of Show Dessert in the 2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition as I accidently found the last bottle of it while looking for something else to enter in the competition. This wine included the addition of 500 mL of XO Brandy (500 mL) and used EC1118 yeast.

Any other advice to share with kit winemakers?

Don’t overdo the alcohol to fortify the wine as you can always add more. Higher temperature helps the fermentation process go smoother, and wait at least a year before sharing it. Chaptalization works well to increase alcohol, just make sure to add yeast nutrient at the same time the sugar is added and check that your yeast can take the higher alcohol environment.

I’ve learned to view failure as a learning experience. It is sometimes painful, especially in my recent case of dumping 10 cases of wine, however, it is a necessary learning experience if you are going to get better.

ror in the winemaking process, and it often takes experience to get the fundamentals down.

What types of adjustments have you made to dessert-style wine kits?

I started with improvements to the winemaking process. I now rehydrate the yeast using Go-FermTM. I want the yeast to be well prepared so I can get the best results. I use yeast suited to the results I want to obtain. There is a selection of yeast that can develop a wide variety of nuances that could improve your wine. I control the temperature within a narrow range during fermentation and during aging. I have also added alcohol and added other flavorings to dessert kit wines.

Take me through the planning and trial process you go through when you decide to stray from the kit instructions.

grape spirits are added exclusively to increase the alcohol content. For fortified dessert wines I usually shoot for 18% alcohol, but I always verify the correct percentage with tasting trials, which ultimately decide the addition rate. Tasting trials work well for additions of flavoring additions too.

What types of fermentation temperature or yeast strain adjustments have you made, and what impact have they had?

How many dessert kit wines have you made? Of those, how many have you significantly strayed from the directions to create a unique wine?

I have made 26 dessert wine kits to date (plus a couple in progress currently). I veered from the directions with nine of those kits. I consider changing the yeast, varying the fermentation temperature, withholding or adding ingredients to be significant changes that I have made.

Any recommendations for those who have never strayed from the directions but considering it?

I would recommend that anyone wanting to experiment with tweaking the dessert kits make several kits following the directions precisely. When you have mastered the making of the dessert wine kits following the directions, only then consider making changes to the winemaking process. Make sure you are skilled at all the winemaking steps from sanitation through bottling. Nothing ruins a great idea like making an er-

The first part of the planning process is to answer the question. “What am I trying to accomplish?” Followed by the question, “How am I going to make that happen?” Some of the changes like choosing a yeast I first choose based on reading descriptions of the results the yeast can produce. I always conduct benchtop tasting trials for the additions.

To give a real-world example, I wanted to add brandy to a raspberry/ mocha dessert kit to add flavor and increase the alcohol content. Using a range from 0–10% I added brandy in 2% increments until I found the ballpark that I was looking for. After the first round, a second round of testing/ tasting was necessary. Based on the results of the first round, the second round included samples with 4%, 5%, and 6% brandy additions. I usually have friends involved in the tasting trials in order to get opinions from a group of tasters.

When fortifying a dessert wine, what types of fortifiers have you used, and at what quantities?

I use two products — store-purchased brandy and grape spirits purchased from All Chemical Solutions in Oregon. I use the brandy to add flavor along with a little more alcohol. The

I ferment my white dessert wines at 55 °F (13 °C) inside of a refrigerator cabinet. I ferment my reds at around 75 °F (24 °C), using a small temperature-controlled room to maintain the temperature plus or minus 5 °F (3 °C) until fermentation is complete. The yeast I use for the white dessert wines and ice-style wine is K1-V1116. I have found 1116 retains more of the aromatics and performs well at lower fermentation temperatures. For the reds, I have always used the yeast provided with the kits, which suits my desired taste.

What other ingredients have you added or subtracted to dessert kit wines?

If the kit dessert wine calls for adding water, I usually withhold 10–15% of the water to increase intensity of the flavors.

In 2021, I purchased three Vintner’s Best Fruit Wine Base kits, one of which was Cherry. While it was entered into competition as a stone fruit wine, I made it to be a dessert wine. I added 575 mL of Torani cherry syrup to backsweeten and add body to the wine (the resulting wine won a gold medal).

How long do you recommend aging dessert wine kits?

I age my dessert wines for a minimum of 6–24 months. For icewine-styles

I age for a minimum of 18 months. I have bottles of raspberry mocha and chocolate cherry dessert wines that are 3–4 years old and tasting wonderful. I feel these wines develop more complexity with age. There are nuances in the taste that appear after aging in addition to the basic flavors

BOB JOAKIMSON began making wine in 2008. Living close to California’s Napa, Livermore, and Lodi wine regions, how could he not? He began dessert wines from kits two years later. Winemaking has become a family affair in the Joakimson household as Bob’s two adult sons have also begun making wine from kits.

from the main ingredients. If I have added brandy, aging seems to help the brandy integrate to become part of the dessert wine, instead of the first thing you taste. The icewines also develop a viscous quality over time, more like traditional ice wines.

What is your biggest success story for a dessert kit wine you have intentionally changed?

I made a Cabernet Franc icewine that took Best of Show Dessert Wine at the Bottle Shock Amateur Wine Competition in California in which I used 1116 yeast and cold fermented at 52 °F (11 °C) for six weeks. I made the same changes to my modified cherry wine that took gold at the WineMaker competition this year and also backsweetened with 5% Torani cherry syrup prior to bottling as a result of tasting trials. It is great poured over ice cream!

Any final insight on adjusting dessert kit wines?

Not all my experiments have resulted in an improvement over following the directions, but that is part of the fun of making kit wines. Understand the baseline and then learn from mistakes.

KEVIN KELLY is a retired lawyer who has been making wine since 2005, typically making about 20 gallons (76 L) of red wine each year. Kevin has won many medals in the annual WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. The first wine he ever made from a kit won gold in the Port Style category in 2022.

How many dessert wines have you made with kits?

I’ve been making wine since 2005, but this was the first dessert wine I have ever made, my first fortified wine, and it is also the first time I have ever made wine from a kit.

After so many years of making wine with grapes, what made you decide to make wine from a kit?

I’ve always enjoyed dessert wines, but I’d never made one. I typically make one 20-gallon (76-L) batch

of red table wine every year, starting with 400–450 pounds (180–205 kg) of grapes. I’ve made Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah, Tempranillo, and Merlot. Over the years I’ve won multiple medals in the WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition, and I’ve always been struck by how very well the wines made from kits perform in that competition.

In November 2020 I got the urge to make a dessert wine and didn’t want to wait around for grapes, so I thought, what the heck, I’d try making a batch from a kit. I did some research and identified two kits that looked interesting: RJS Cru Specialty Black Forest Dessert Wine and Winexpert Après Chocolate Raspberry Dessert Wine. In addition to the convenience of being able to make wine immediately using a kit, I was also curious as to the experience of working with a kit instead of grapes.

So the one wine you made is actually a blend of two dessert wine kits? Did you blend the entire batch of each, or end up with three different wines? I fermented each kit separately and blended them together when they were both about seven months old. At about six months of age I got my chief wine taster (my spouse) involved. We did a tasting of the wines separately and also blended (with various percentages of blends). From that process, I decided to blend both batches together entirely.

Why did you decide to fortify this wine and how did you determine the fortification rate?

Commercial Port — which I enjoy — is a fortified wine, so I decided to fortify this wine as well. I used the Pearson Square calculator to determine how much alcohol to add to achieve my target (19-20% ABV) using information from “The Pearson Square” by Dawson Raspuzzi available online at https://winemakermag.com/ article/the-pearson-square).

Other than blending the two kits and fortifying the wine, did you stray from the directions in any other ways?

Yes. (1) During the fermentation of both batches I added one gram of Opti-Red per gallon (0.26 g/L) of fermenting juice and, six hours later, 1.3 grams of Tannin FT Rouge per gallon (0.34 g/L) of fermenting juice; (2) after racking the wine into carboys following fermentation, I added oak cubes to each carboy (French medium-plus, about one-half ounce of cubes per gallon or 3.7 g/L of wine); I removed the cubes after 5–6 months; and (3) about eight months after fermentation, I added 0.3 grams per gallon (0.08 g/L) Tannin Riche Extra and 0.6 grams per gallon (0.16 g/L) Tannin Complex to each carboy. I have used these additions when making several previous batches of wine, with good results. I find that they add to the structure, mouthfeel, and complexity of the wine.

How long have you aged this wine, and what types of changes have you observed over time?

I am still aging the wine in carboys. I plan to bottle it within the next two months. The wine is now about 20 months old, and it definitely seems to be improving with age. The wine I submitted for competition, and which won the gold medal, was 12 months old (I bottled the entry at the time of a racking).

Anything to say to other longtime winemakers who have never tried making wine from a kit before?

I was very impressed with how easy it was to make wine from a kit. With respect to both kits I used, the directions were very clear and very easy to follow. I love making wine from grapes, but there are many opportunities for screwing up. With kits, the process is very straightforward, and there seem to be far fewer opportunities for problems. At least that’s the way it seemed to me, based on my limited experience with kits. For people interested in making wine for the first time, I think a kit would be an excellent way to proceed. And for experienced winemakers who have never used a kit, I think you would find the process interesting and the results, hopefully, satisfying.

hen I graduated from UC-Davis in 1983 the industry was undergoing exponential growth, with small wineries popping up everywhere. These were almost entirely second careers, so these newbies didn’t have time to earn a fouryear degree in enology before setting out to realize their dreams. This jump straight to production meant a lot of winemakers had a shaky understanding of all of the chemistry involved in winemaking, and it showed as a lot of commercial wines were being produced and distributed that would be unmerchantable today.

Why study wine chemistry? Chances are your high school chemistry teacher gave you a bad attitude about the subject, and after all, winemaking got along pretty darn well for 8,000 years without it. The ancients learned empirically down through the generations, no doubt a superior method than today’s modern enology, of which I am highly critical.

The reason to continue reading is that you want to make great wine

reliably before you die.

Nothing in this article is absolute. You will doubtless find my system in conflict with others you know. But in this article I will summarize rules of thumb that have served me well over five decades of winemaking.

GETTING STARTED

In the August-September 2022 issue I covered the intricacies of vineyard selection, monitoring, and harvesting grapes, so we’ll start this article at the crusher, mostly concerned with correcting Brix, pH, and titratable acidity (TA).

I always add water if Brix is excessive. This addition means more wine, but also better wine. Lower alcohol actually increases extraction in reds and increases aromatics in whites. I like my reds around 13.8% ABV, which corresponds to 23 °Brix. Whites and dry rosés are best at around 12.5%, which corresponds to 21 °Brix. If your Brix is lower, you can chaptalize with sugar up to these levels, though there are many lovely German Rieslings and Iowa La Crescents at 8% ABV,

so a lot depends on your goals. Since Brix is a weight percentage these calculations are tricky. Online calculators are available, including the one I use at winebusiness.com/calculator/ winemaking/. Strangely, diluting the must diminishes titratable acidity (TA) proportionately but has a negligible e ect on pH.

The colloidal nature of red wine means that lowering must Brix results in greater phenolic extraction, producing wines with more aromatic integration and longevity, vital elements in encouraging a healthy microbiome, and the development of profound bottle bouquet.

If a red wine is dry and has undergone malolactic fermentation (MLF) it will not require filtration beyond possible clarification, and even that is seldom necessary. New World commercial winemakers tend to sterilize their wines at bottling in paranoia concerning development of Brettanomyces in the bottle. I think this is a mistake, as these wines never develop in bottle. In my opinion, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

by Clark Smith

Old World cellars have developed a beneficial microbiome that permits these nuances, which, after all, are what made us fall in love with red wine in the first place. Home winemakers have the advantage that Brett in the bottle is a risk they can afford, and the results are generally, though not always, quite gratifying. Nurturing a stable beneficial microbiome is a tricky business that requires eschewing draconian cellar practices and maintaining stable temperature and humidity in the cellar.

THE BASICS ABOUT ACIDS

An acid is any compound that can ionize, giving up a proton (H+) and leaving behind the rest of the molecule, whatever that may be (A-). The acids in wine are said to be “weak.” This means they exist in both forms and ionize at different pHs, called “pKa’s.”

TA and pH are very different things. TA tells us how many protons we have altogether, whereas pH tells us how many are ionized, thus free at a given pH. TA stimulates the action of a salivary gland. It tells us how tart the wine is. Different wine styles require different TAs in the bottle, generally between 5–9 grams per liter. TA has nothing to do with microbial stability or aging potential — that would be pH. You can’t taste pH, but it controls wine chemistry and microbiology. The pH affects the speed of oxidation, visible color, propensity for microbial spoilage, freshness of aroma, the effectiveness of SO2, and much else. It’s the speedometer of aging. A pH of 3.0 is like driving 10 MPH. A pH of 4.0 is like driving 100 MPH. Neither of these is generally a good idea.

The remarkably simple bottom line is that you should adjust all acid-deficient musts with tartaric acid to pH 3.45 as freshly crushed must. For reds, we generally don’t measure pH or Brix until after a 24-hour soak out, which will shift the desired pH target from 3.45 to 3.60 since considerable buffer is extracted from the skins in that first day. To make this adjustment, the rule of thumb is that 1.0 gram per liter of tartaric acid will

shift the pH by 0.2 units. Through the action of tartrate precipitation, skin contact, and malolactic, these adjustments will fortunately move almost any wine into the correct zones of desirability for the full range of whites and reds, as shown in Figure 1.

Additions of tartaric acid (and very occasionally malic acid) are very easy. Tartaric acid is the stronger of the two, and additions will stimulate bitartrate precipitation, lowering the TA and the pH simultaneously, so you get much more pH bang for your TA buck. Malic acid should only be used in that rare ripe white wine with a low TA and also a low pH. I had a Sémillon once with a TA of 5 g/L and a pH of 3.50. The correct addition was 2.5 g/L malic acid, which took me to 7 g/L and 3.30 at bottling. A similar tartaric add would have put me down at pH 2.85, a disaster for free SO2 management as we’ll see.

Unless you’re using brass and mild steel fittings (shame on you), citric acid has no place in wine, but it’s great for shining stainless and for barrel holding solutions in combination with SO2. One of the silliest products you’ll find in home winemaking shops is the so-called acid blend of tartaric, malic, and citric acids, combining the disadvantages of all three.

As you’ve seen, adding acid is pretty easy. Reducing acidity is a different story. If you are lucky enough to have

a low pH, potassium bicarbonate will lower your TA quite easily. Its effect is a little uncertain, but depending on your potassium content, to lower TA 1.0 g/L you need somewhere between 0.25 and 0.5 g/L of potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3). This doesn’t work so well if your pH is also high.

There are two kinds of conditions that can cause high pH/high TA. The one we tend to see in California is characterized by high potassium (K+), and the cure is simple if scary. Let’s say you have a Chardonnay with a TA of 10 g/L and a pH of 3.9. Jeez. But if your K+ is high, you simply acidify to pH 3.60 with tartaric. This puts you on the peak of the bitartrate (HTa-) curve (see Figure 1). If you have gobs of K+ and gobs of HTa-, they will combine to precipitate KHTa crystals in spades. Try this at lab scale first. Take 500 mLs of juice, acidify to pH 3.60 and fill up a 12-ounce (355-mL) plastic water bottle, squeezing somewhat to allow for expansion when you freeze it overnight. If it’s working, in the morning you’ll see a heavy white precipitate. Thaw it out and read the pH and TA. You should have normal numbers, in which case make the same addition to the tank.

The other cause of high pH/ high TA is high malic acid, which is characteristic of cool climates and cold-tolerant varieties like Marquette and Frontenac.

We now have yeasts that can low-

Figure 1: Zones of Desirability of pH and TA in Wine

er malic acid by as much as one third. Lalvin 71b also enhances fruitiness. You have to be very careful to hydrate these at precisely the prescribed temperature. Dead yeast are the main cause of failure. There are several other malate-consuming yeasts out there –talk to Scott Labs, Lamothe-Abiet, and Enartis for recommendations.

You can also consider malolactic fermentation, which if conducted during primary fermentation with a low diacetyl producer such as VP41 can still result in a fruity wine without the buttery character. If you like the butter, BETA is a strain that will give it to you if you run the MLF after alcoholic fermentation.

SWEET WINE CHEMISTRY

If you are making a sweeter wine at home you will not be set up to properly sterilize a bottling line. Even commercial wineries commonly employ half-million-dollar mobile lines to do this right, so don’t try this at home. The easiest way to make sweet wine at home is to add high-proof spirit during fermentation and make Portand Sherry-like wines. For these to be stable, you’ll need over 80 Delle Units. Delle was a Russian enologist who in 1905 figured out that if %ABV x 4.5 + %RS (residual sugar) exceeds 80, the wine will be stable. Ports typically run 18% alcohol and 9% RS. In the equation, this looks like:

(18 x 4.5) + 9 = 90

Dom Perignon’s discovery was that if you referment wine in the bottle to 5 atmospheres (this takes about 19 g/L of sugar), then when you disgorge, you can add a dosage and sweeten as much as you like. The CO2 pressure will keep the wine from refermenting.

While it is not recommended, it is worth mentioning that you can also stabilize non-ML whites with potassium sorbate, although this process will lead to an aroma with a distinct chemical smell. This is converted to a horrible vegetal “geranium tone” in wines that have undergone MLF, including almost all reds, so don’t use it on these wines. Even when you wish

to make sweet, non-ML whites, the magnolia blossom aroma of sorbate is never delightful, so for heaven’s sake, don’t use it indiscriminately.

From here on, I’m going to assume that you want to make dry wine.

RULES OF THUMB FOR WHITE WINES

• Add either 30-ppm SO2 at the crusher (“Green Juice Club”) or none (“Brown Juice Club”). Green Juices end up with more golden color (think Rhine Rieslings); un-sulfited juices precipitate phenolics, look like mud, but believe it or not, end up lean, fresh, and age-worthy (think Mosel Rieslings).

• For most whites and rosés, you will want to suppress malolactic by racking onto SO2 immediately after dryness. Assuming that your wine is in the desirable zone between pH 3.20 and 3.40, an initial ~25 ppm free SO2 puts you in the right ballpark. To get there, our Green Juice Club wines should start with 70 ppm, while Brown Juice Club wines only need 50 ppm. No, that’s not backwards. The goal is to achieve 0.8 ppm molecular SO2 as calculated in Figure 2, below. Keep below 60 °F (16 °C) and rack off all lees as soon as practical. Then adjust as needed.

• The most common exception is Chardonnay, which you may want to put through MLF. In this case, you inoculate with a high or low diacetyl-producing strain, depending on the amount of buttery character you wish to impart.

• You may elect to employ MLF to reduce acidity while retaining your fruity freshness. This is often achieved sequentially during primary fermentation by inoculation with a vigorous low-diacetyl culture. If you’re incomplete post alcoholic fermentation, leave the wine on its lees for two weeks, keep it around 70 °F (21 °C) until complete, then sulfite according to Figure 2.

• White wines will generally throw a protein haze if unfined. Adding bentonite is the surest way to prevent this occurrence in the bottle. Over-fining can result in unnecessary loss of flavor and volume. While it is advisable to perform a bench trial on a series of samples, to do so at home is difficult. Assessing precisely how much is needed requires some fancy equipment (you need some screw-capped test tubes, a temperature-controlled water bath, a centrifuge, and a series of syringe filters), so your best move is to farm this out to a lab. Alternatively, you can estimate your requirement based on past history with a specific variety and location. Wines with high tannin levels such as Pinot Gris, Chenin Blanc, St. Pepin, rosés, and Chardonnay, particularly when barrel aged, generally need little (0.2 g/L) or no bentonite, while high-protein grapes such as Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, and Riesling can require much higher doses (0.6–1.2 g/L), particularly from heatstressed vines.

• Most home winemakers (and many

Figure 2: Distribution of free SO 2 at various pHs

small commercial outfits) lack the glycol system necessary to chillproof whites against crystal formation in the bottle. I’m not a fan in any case, as stripping K+ results in decreases in body and flavor persistence in the finish. Recently a product called potassium polyaspartame, marketed by Enartis as Zenith One, has been developed that stabilizes against tartrate precipitation without chilling. Unlike previous products such as metatartaric acid and carboxymethyl cellulose, it is highly reliable as long as you’re protein stable.

RULES OF THUMB FOR DRY RED WINES

• Red fermentations generally benefit from high anthocyanin content. This means monomers that have not been field-oxidized by excessive hang time. Sacrificial tannins in the 100 to 200 ppm range at the crusher are useful in pre-emptively combining with grape proteins, leaving the more comely grape tannins to contribute to elegant structure. Higher doses are useful to deactivate laccase, the oxidizing enzyme in rot.

• Anthocyanins are positively charged, so they repel each other and won’t coordinate into colloids by themselves. We use co-fermentation factors to slip between them. Sources of co-fermenters include the skins of complementary varieties — a high color/low tannin variety mixed with a low pigment/high tannin variety. Co-pigmentation additions include well-cured untoasted oak chips or the skins from such as terpene-rich white skins.

• Porous vessels are essential for off-gassing funkiness and to provide some micro-oxidation to refine your tannins. Small new oak barrels tend to over-oak. Hot water soda ash treatments can tame new oak character, and neutral small oak is a prized possession to be cherished. Many winemakers are moving to porous plastic vessels designed to breathe like a barrel, then controlling aromatics with carefully crafted bar-

rel alternatives that are less expensive, easier to control, and more environmentally responsible than new oak barrels.

• Red wines are always protein stable because the tannins take out natural protein. Since they aren’t chilled, tartrate precipitation isn’t a big deal, so they usually aren’t cold stabilized.

SULFUR DIOXIDE FOR RED WINES

• Nearly all red wine undergoes malolactic fermentation because pigment binds the SO2 that would otherwise prevent it.

• Forget about molecular SO2 calculations. Free SO2 doesn’t actually exist in red wines, as it is all bound to anthocyanins. These forms are in rapid equilibrium with the free SO2, and are incorrectly measured as free in both iodometric and aeration/ oxidation analyses.

• The desirable pH zone for reds is between 3.70 for light reds and 3.85 for big, long-aging Cabernets and such. In this zone, maintain 20 to 30 ppm “free” to scavenge aldehyde without reference to pH, thus avoiding oxidation and browning.

• Pigment-bound SO2 is ineffective against vinegar bacteria. What protects reds from Acetobacter spoilage is the wine’s ability to absorb oxygen, or “O2 appetite.” The real takehome message is that your reds will take care of themselves if made from sound, properly ripe (but not overripe) grapes so that they have a healthy oxygen-consuming reactivity. One sign of high reductive potential is the production of small amounts of H2S. This can be a good thing. Your 15-year-old son’s pimply face indicates a healthy testosterone level that promises a happy marriage in old age.

• Brett is kept at bay by beneficial microbes that compete with it for essential micronutrients. Since it employs a whole suite of clever practices to hide out from SO2, what the preserva-

tive mainly accomplishes is to kill off beneficial microbiome, leaving a clear path for Brett. Although petri dish plating of sulfited wines does show diminished numbers, it has been recently discovered that the preservative renders it “viable — nonculturable.” Enology’s funniest joke.

LAB GEAR

You can, at considerable expense and delay time, send out your wines for all kinds of analysis. But you must have a modest lab at home with the capability to measure Brix, pH, TA, residual sugar near dryness, and free SO2 You cannot send these out. Free SO2 will deteriorate in transit, and your need to know pH and TA can’t wait. Fortunately, there are tools available to home winemakers for these measurements. The Vinmetrica SC-300 is an instrument that can measure all three and retails for around $550.

Brix also needs to be measured on site, as it will change in transit and you have an immediate need to know. A simple Brix hydrometer with a built-in thermometer is under $30. These aren’t very precise but will get you by while you save up for a set of four that accurately measure parts of the scale from 30 °Brix on down to -5 °Brix for about $200. If you have a lot of fermentations and money is no object, you won’t regret acquiring a portable densitometer. Even the best Brix measurement won’t tell you if your wine is dry. You can determine this quite accurately with a test pill marketed as Clinitest or Dextrocheck at 50 cents a pop.

If you make red wines then you will almost certainly also want to set yourself up with a paper chromatography setup for around $100 to monitor your malolactic fermentations.

CONCLUSION

So there you have the basics of the wine chemistry you need to understand to make great wine. Besides understanding the science, the other key to becoming a master winemaker is to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. Thought is born of failure, so embrace those mistakes and benefit from them.

TECHNIQUES

BY BOB PEAK

INTOXICATING STUFF

Crafting ice wine and ice cider

It can be some of the most expensive and sought-after wine in the world. Ice wine production can be extremely labor-intensive with some commercial production selectivity going down to selecting the fruit one berry at a time. But home winemakers aren’t constrained like commercial producers. Here, we’ll take a spin through the many ways ice wines and ciders can be produced at home.

COMMERCIAL ICE WINE PRODUCTION

Authentic commercial ice wine is a rare, delicious, and tightly regulated beverage. Canada’s Ontario province is the world’s largest producer. Germany, where it is called Eiswein, also has a long history with this high-acid, very sweet dessert wine. Common to those sources and others, like U.S. states Michigan, New York, and Oregon, are requirements that grapes are naturally frozen on the vines. Regulations go further: The grapes must be harvested while frozen and pressed without thawing. Harvest proceeds quickly in ambient temperatures of about 18 °F (-8 °C) and grapes are rushed to the winery. By the time the weather reaches the right conditions, the grapes have also been hanging on the vines long enough that sugar levels are elevated. While water freezes solid in the grapes, a sugar syrup forms that also concentrates the natural acids. That syrupy juice is pressed out of the frozen grapes, leading to a must of about 40 °Brix and a total acidity (TA) of about 10 g/L. A long, cool fermentation follows. With a combination of chilling, sulfite addition, and sterile filtration, the fermentation is stopped with a residual sugar of 10–20%. White grapes, including Riesling and hybrids like

Vidal Blanc, are commonly used, but Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and other reds also are employed. Aromas of apricot, honey, peach, and pear highlight sweet flavors. Pairings are most common with creamy desserts, but the wines may also go well with strong cheeses or meats like foie gras.

Because of the stringent requirements for on-the-vine freezing and frozen pressing, it is unlikely many home winemakers can duplicate the commercial process. As always, though, home winemakers can do what we want and results count more than regulations! Ice-style wine, if you will, is definitely within reach if you want to try making one of these high-acid, high-sugar dessert wines for yourself.

ICE CIDER PRODUCTION

Ice cider is a similar beverage with strict regulations for the commercial product. Because ripe apples tend to fall from the trees, they don’t have to be frozen in place. Rather, they are harvested, kept cool in bins, then set outside to freeze once the weather is cold enough. They are brought back inside the winery, allowed to partially thaw, and then are pressed without crushing. While some home cidermakers might be able to do that with a bladder press, once again the result is of more interest than the regulations. Fortunately, since colonial times home apple growers have been using cold weather to “jack” cider in making apple jack, a higher-alcohol drink like ice cider. Most modern apple jack is distilled with heat just like other spirits, but jacking, sometimes called cryo-distilling, is within home cidermakers’ reach.

HOMEMADE ICE WINE

So rather than dwell on the commer-

As always, though, home winemakers can do what we want and results count more than regulations!

Freezing juice and slowly thawing and bleeding off the sugary, thawed liquid is one way to concentrate it for ice wine or cider production.

Photo by Jeremy Olsen

cial methods, specific weather, and heavy equipment needed for the “real thing,” we will look at the steps you can take at home to make ice-style wine or apple jack for your own enjoyment. (In Canada, it is usually spelled “icewine” and in the U.S. as two words “ice wine.” I’ll just call our home version “ice wine” with the -style implied.)

Once you have a high-sugar, high-acid juice or must that resembles the syrupy press yield from frozen grapes or partially thawed apples, the fermentation process will be the same. I’ll discuss that first, then offer some methods for getting such a must. Since the high sugar level is challenging for the yeast and fermentation is done at a cool temperature, expect it to take longer than conventional wine or cider. Pour or rack your prepared must into a carboy fitted with an airlock. For most people, three gallons (11 L) will be enough of this sweet dessert wine to last a while, so a 5-gal. (19-L) carboy works well as a primary fermenter that allows headspace for foaming. Start with the must at warm room temperature, around 75 °F (24 °C). Measure the Brix level. Since many refractometers and hydrometers only go up to 32 °Brix, you may need to dilute a sample 50:50 with distilled water, then double the reading. This is not precisely correct because Brix is percent sugar by weight rather than volume, but it is close enough for this project.

Use twice as much yeast as you would with ordinary juice; 2 g of yeast per gallon (3.8 L). Use rehydration nutrients to get a healthy ferment. Heat 70 mL of clean, chlorine-free

water to 104 °F (40 °C). Stir in 7 g of Go-Ferm Protect Evolution™ from Lallemand or similar yeast rehydration nutrient. Allow to stand 10 minutes, stir again, and stir in 6 g of a robust yeast like Uvaferm 43 or Red Star Premier Blanc. Let stand another 10 minutes and check the temperature. You want a temperature difference of less than 15 °F (8 °C) between the yeast slurry and the must. If your difference is greater than that, add 35 mL of must to the slurry, stir, wait 10 minutes and check again. Repeat the must addition if needed, then stir the tempered yeast slurry into the must. Fit a fermentation lock to the carboy and move it to a cool cellar, around 55 °F (13 °C). Monitor the drop in Brix every day, using a sanitized thief, hydrometer, and hydrometer jar so you can return the sample to the fermentation. When you are within 2 or 3 °Brix of your target final sugar level, stop the fermentation. Rack the wine into a PET carboy or a stainless-steel keg and place that vessel in a larger bucket. Fill the bucket with ice up to the neck of the PET carboy or top of the keg. Add 50 mg/L of sulfite to the juice. Replenish the ice as needed to keep the wine cold. After three days, rack again to a topped-up carboy and add another 50 mg/L of sulfite. Fit an airlock and watch for signs of refermentation. If you see bubbles, add another 50 mg/L of sulfite. Age two or three months and fine with bentonite if the wine does not clear. When it is stable, add potassium sorbate at a rate of ½ tsp. per gallon (0.66 mL/L). Filter your ice wine or cider through a nominal sterile filter (using coarser prefilters if needed), add

a final 10 mg/L of sulfite, and bottle in 375-mL half-bottles.

Kits and Concentrates

Now to get that must. If you want a wine with 10 or 11% ABV and residual sugar of around 15% (150 g/L), you will need a starting must about 35 °Brix. The simplest approach is to buy an ice wine-style kit such as Winexpert’s Après Riesling Icewine Style or RJS Craft Winemaking’s Cru Specialty Vidal Dessert Wine. If you do that, disregard my winemaking instructions from earlier and follow the kit instructions exactly. The next easiest approach is to use packaged grape concentrate. These natural grape syrups are produced using vacuum distillation of grape juice and usually finish with a sugar content of 68 °Brix. Diluted 50:50 with distilled water, you will get a must in the range for ice wine. Start by adding a bit less water, check the Brix, and continue to dilute until your starting target is achieved.

Frozen Juice

Commercial frozen white grape juice can also be used for this project. When you receive your pail of frozen juice, place it in a cool location and allow it to begin thawing. From time to time, pour off the syrup that will thaw first into your carboy. When you are approaching a volume of about half what you started with, measure the Brix of your must. If it is too high, continue adding melted juice until you reach your target. You can apply the reverse process to your own or purchased fresh juice. Place the juice in a plastic bucket, put on the lid, and put the bucket in a chest freezer. Check every few hours and use a stainless steel mesh strainer to strain out ice crystals as they form. Keep these in another bucket in case you want to add some back if you overshoot your Brix target in the remaining must. Warm the resulting must to room temperature and proceed as described earlier.

CIDER METHODS

Now that you are relaxing and enjoying your ice wine, what about ice cider and apple jack? Ice cider is a relatively new commercial product, developed primarily in Quebec in the 1990s. Apple jack made with natural freezing dates back to at least colonial times. Ice cider resembles ice wine in that it involves fermenting a pre-concentrated juice. The favored method is to allow apples to naturally freeze, either on the trees or in bins after harvest, and then thaw. You can do this at home with either natural or mechanical freezing if you have a bladder press that will press partially frozen fruit. Freeze crates of apples, then place them in a cool room to partially thaw. Stir the apples from time to time to assure

that they thaw evenly. When soft enough to yield to the pressure of your thumb, load the press and collect the juice. Measure Brix as for ice wine and follow the fermentation method described earlier. Quebec commercial requirements stipulate a starting Brix of at least 30 and residual sugar above 130 g/L, but as a home cidermaker you can view these as guidelines rather than rules. Squeezing previously frozen apples is called cryo-extraction.

Cryo-concentration is the alternative approach to ice cider. Crush the apples and press in the usual manner, then freeze the juice. After it is frozen, allow to partially thaw and drain off the concentrated juice. At home you can put a bucket of juice in a freezer as described earlier for ice wine. You can either periodically strain out ice with a stainless mesh strainer or freeze completely and collect the syrupy juice as it thaws.

Apple jack, on the other hand, is concentrated after fermentation. While the modern commercial product is generally produced by thermal distillation and is closely related to apple brandy, the colonial recipe used freezing. Although sometimes called cryo-distillation, there is really no distillation involved as there is no evaporation — just freezing. Make your cider in the usual manner, preferably with some residual sweetness. Then, either outdoors or in a freezer, freeze the cider. You may use either of the concentration techniques previously noted—strain out ice crystals or freeze and drain off concentrated cider. Removing ice from a barrel of cider left out to freeze overnight was the original “jacking” of colonial times. Alcohol, sugar, and malic acid will all be concentrated in the part that freezes last or thaws first. Stabilize and clarify, then bottle in 375-mL half-bottles.

Once you have both ice wine and either ice cider or apple jack, plan how you will showcase them to friends and family. These beverages are best enjoyed chilled and usually in small glasses. Pair with a rich creamy dessert like crème brûlée or Bavarian cream, or step over to the savory side with pâté or foie gras.

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

Use twice as much yeast as you would with ordinary juice; 2 g of yeast per gallon (3.8 L).

DEALING WITH HAZE

Achieving clarity in your wine

You’ve had a great harvest and pressing or got your hands on your favorite kit. Everything has gone to plan with fermentation and the wine is now resting quietly, maturing gracefully. You smell and taste — all points to a great future. Weeks and months pass and you feel the desire to bring your new creation to the bottling stage — taking a sample and pouring it into a glass you realize there is one last, big hurdle. Surprise! The Haze. Coming to a theater near you.

I know this is hardly a great setting for a horror film but clarifying your wine can be a nightmare. Some hazes are stubborn and simply refuse to settle. Some can (and will) clog your filtration machines leaving the room spattered with wine like a Jackson Pollock canvas. We can do something about these and give our wine a brilliant beauty and polish — a look as good as its flavor.

Hazes are a natural and common occurrence in winemaking. They are essentially made up of a variety of compounds from the grapes themselves and microflora that fermented them. They include proteins, tannins and other polyphenolics, pectin and complex carbohydrates, as well as yeast and bacterial cell debris.

The difficulty is that these compounds can create something reminiscent of an emulsion or colloidal dispersion in the wine, described as having turbidity or being unclear. In an ideal world, these compounds sink and settle to the bottom of the vessel where you can then rack the wine off the compacted sediment, yielding crystal clarity. In reality, this is rarely the case and the hazes will often persist to some extent, leaving a wine that looks

dull and, in an extreme case, completely opaque.

There is, in fact, an explanation for these, down to a molecular level: These solids remain in suspension because there are molecular forces that keep them floating around. Some are static-like charges, think opposites attract or like rubbing your hair with a balloon. Others are known as hydrophobic, similar to the way oil repels itself from water. If we are lucky, all will settle with time in a cold cellar, the way we are naturally inclined to leave our wine to bulk age over the winter months before bottling in the spring or summer. This is a great practice to allow your wine to begin clarifying gently and naturally.

But there are other means that are commonly used when the wine is not settling to our liking. The process is called fining and we use fining agents (along with gravity) to assist us in reining in these molecular interactions. In brief, fining agents can either bind directly to the particulates, creating larger agglomerates, or they can disturb the molecular interactions that keep these particulates floating around. The goal is to encourage settling over a short period of time, from days to a few weeks, rather than months.

In this article we will explore a variety of common fining agents, their mechanism of action, and how we can strategically use one or more of them to help achieve that sought-after polish in our wine without any negative effects that strip the wine of its character — it’s a fine balance.

For simplicity, I will group the fining agents into two (very) general categories, inorganics and organics. There are also other categories of compounds that can contribute to fining and these are synthetics and enzymes.

BY KEVIN DONATO

Hazes are a natural and common occurrence in winemaking. They are essentially made up of a variety of compounds from the grapes themselves and microflora that fermented them.

Photo by Jeff Shoemaker

Derived from clay, bentonite is a popular clarifying agent used by winemakers, most notably for white wines, to flocculate yeast and clear hazes.

INORGANIC FINING AGENTS – STRAIGHT FROM THE EARTH

Commonly used inorganic fining agents are clays and they contain compounds commonly found in soil and mineral deposits. They are predominantly derived of silicon and silicates such as bentonite clay named after its origin of discovery in Fort Benton, Montana. It is also known as montmorillonite from its namesake town in France. Inorganics like silicon, when they dissolve in wine, will assume a negative charge and, therefore, will attract positively charged particulates.

Bentonite is derived from aluminum silicate clay and is commonly found in wine kits. It is not hard to understand why: Bentonite is easy to use and highly effective. It needs to be mixed with enough hot water to create a runny, liquid slurry — if left thick like a paste then it will not be effective. It can be added at the time of inoculation with yeast or post-fermentation. When used during fermentation, it can help to settle the expired yeast cell debris (gross lees) into a more compact mass at the bottom of the vessel, which can greatly help when you perform the first racking. The great thing about the fine particles of bentonite is that during fermentation the carbon dioxide gas can re-suspend the bentonite where it can go back to work. After fermentation, bentonite can not only help to gather any hazes left over but it can also act as nucleation sites for any remaining dissolved carbon dioxide. In other words, it can help de-gas the wine. Bentonite is often used in white wine fining because in red wine it can bind tannins as well. So if you are not careful you can strip a red wine of some of its structure.

Kieselsol is a mixture of silicon dioxide and colloidal silica and binds phenolic compounds and their complexes. Some of the benefits that kieselsol provides over bentonite is that it comes in a liquid format, so there is no need to rehydrate or dissolve it. You simply measure the dose you require and mix directly into the wine.

ORGANIC FINING AGENTS – THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFEFORMS

Some organic fining agents are derived from proteins. Examples include albumin, from egg whites, or isinglass, from fish collagen. They can also be complex carbohydrates like chitosan, from the shells of crustaceans, or sparkolloid, an alginate. Proteins are made of long chains of amino acids with a variety of chemical properties. Within the proteins used for clarifying wine there are amino acids that will assume a positive charge when subjected to the acidic pH (for wine this is typically in the magnitude of pH 3 to pH 4). Therefore, they will attract the negatively charged particulates and help them to precipitate.

I will mention egg white at the top of the list of examples because it’s probably the easiest to come by. And if you’re skilled enough to crack an egg, separate the yolk, and thin it out with water and a pinch of salt, then you can easily dose your wine. As little as half a small egg white is plenty to treat a 5-gallon (19-L) carboy. The active ingredient is albumin, which binds tannins and polyphenolics very well, reducing astringency in overly tannic red wines. Albumin

can also help to remove hazes because these tannins can complex with other proteins, so egg albumin can indirectly remove them as well.

Isinglass has been commonly used in winemaking and brewing for centuries and the active ingredient is collagen The molecular structure of this type of collagen resembles long, heavy coils and they are decorated with positive charges. Isinglass is therefore very adept at flocculating pesky hazes created by lees. When hydrated and dissolved in water these coils can dissociate from one another, revealing areas with additional attractive surfaces to allow for binding more particulates. This is a process called hydrogen bonding.

Sparkolloid is a polysaccharide extract made from alginate (found in the cell walls of algae) and diatomaceous earth. The mixture carries both positive and negative charges and its predominant mechanism of action is to neutralize the charges on a variety of suspended particulates. I have used it when other fining agents have not been effective. Sparkolloid requires dissolving in water and then heating on the stove to activate it before adding it (still warm) to the wine. While you may notice clarification beginning the next day, it can be slow to act, so it is important to let it work for a few weeks so that the sediment can compact as much as possible.

Chitosan is another polysaccharide-based fining agent sourced from crustacean shells. The amino groups (–NH2) in its molecular structure will become positively charged in the environment of wine pH. Its mechanism of action is similar to sparkolloid but it can be stirred directly into the wine and it acts within a couple of days. (For winemakers who prefer to avoid using animal products, there are now plant-based chitosan products sourced from microbial Aspergillus niger.)

CRAFTY CLARIFYING COMBINATIONS

Since the inorganic fining agents are helpful in binding proteins (remember, many proteins are positively charged in the context of the wine environment), kieselsol and bentonite can be used in follow-up to using protein-based fining agents. This could help with really stubborn hazes that the protein fining agents may not have been able to completely clear. For example, there are ready-made kits available that offer both chitosan and kieselsol and they are dosed into the wine sequentially, allowing each respective portion to act on its own for a day or more.

SYNTHETICS AND ENZYMES

I want to also mention that there are some other specialized compounds that can indirectly help with clarifying wine.

Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) is an insoluble synthetic polymer that contains many carbonyl (C=O) groups that, through an attraction known as hydrogen bonding (rather than static charge), can adsorb small polyphenolic compounds on its surface. Some of these polyphenolics not only contribute to haze and astringency but also the potential for browning. Therefore, it can remedy or prevent white wines from becoming dull, tired, or oxidized looking. If you are after creating a colorless white from a Pinot Gris or were interested in creating a blanc de noir but ended up with too

much pink hue, then PVPP treatment can also help adsorb the color compounds. In reds, it can improve the garnet or tawny hues toward a more youthful looking ruby, but at the expense of some color intensity if overdone.

Enzymes can be used as a form of fining. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions and, in the winemaking context, can help digest larger molecules and organisms that contribute to hazes. Two enzymes in particular are pectinase and lysozyme. Pectinases are found in many kinds of microorganisms and even fruits. They serve to break down pectin, chains of sugar molecules that form the plant cell wall “fiber” and are used as the thickening agent to make jam and jellies. Unlike most fining agents, pectinases are best used at the beginning of fermentation, added to the crush. There, they will work to break down the pectin and soften the must to help with pressing and yield more juice. The action of pectinase is enhanced with the heat that is given off as the yeast are actively fermenting — advantageous for red wine production. Some biochemistry trivia is that an 18 °F (10 °C) rise in temperature will roughly double the activity of most enzymes (to a point of course, don’t boil your musts!). If you are making white wines that are typically fermenting cooler then a bit more time is needed to allow the enzyme to digest the pectin. Either way, you will end up with a must that has already gone through some fining, making the rest of the clarification that much easier.

Lysozyme is also derived from nature, found in secretions such as tears, saliva, milk, and egg white. Nature uses lysozyme as an antibacterial because it breaks down bacterial cell walls (known as peptidoglycan). In winemaking terms, lysozyme can digest malolactic bacteria (Oenococci). Lysozyme can be used to inhibit MLF (malolactic fermentation) but can also be used to stop MLF at any point after it starts. Sterile filtration is a common way to rid wine of malolactic bacteria but practically, for the sake of your filter pump, you’ll want to clarify the wine first, and lysozyme can be a great first step to break down the bacterial growth.

BENCH TRIALS AND DEVELOPING YOUR FINEST STRATEGY

Now that we have some more context around what common fining agents are used and how they work, we need to know something about the wine we wish to clarify. As static charge plays a big role in how proteins behave, it is important to have an estimate of the acidity, especially the pH of your wine. Since pH can affect the magnitude of the charge of molecules it would be worthwhile to adjust the pH of the wine to your liking before you begin adding fining agents. One of the reasons why a particular fining agent might be slow to act or even largely ineffective is that there is not enough “static cling.” It may mean that you have to use more fining agent than necessary had you made the adjustments beforehand. Winemaking is never a rushed affair and before you add any fining agents to clear a haze it helps to let time and gravity run its course. Have you racked the wine off the gross lees? Degassed through subsequent racking or agitation? Has the wine been subjected to cold temperatures to help precipitate tartrates and encourage general settling of

hazes? You can increase the likelihood of successful fining if the wine is given these as a head start toward its final, polished state.

Bench trials are critical for predictability — It is important to note, and I’ve learned from my own mistakes, that you can overdo the fining process. Sure you may end up with crystal clear wine, but at what cost? If not done properly, by adding too much fining agent or the wrong types of fining agent, you can rob your wine of character, color, and even worse, not clarify the wine at all! First, it is most important to know what agent you will use and determine whether or not it is appropriate.

Next, is that you plan an experiment/bench trial on a portion of the wine. A bench trial for fining involves taking a series of samples and then adding increasingly more of a particular fining agent to each subsequent sample. In its simplest form, you have three samples: One with no fining agent added, one with half the recommended dose, and one with a full dose. You can see how these trials can become more and more elaborate as you take a fourth or fifth sample, to which you would add one-quarter or three-quarters of a dose and so on. You could structure your trial to include additional phases in which you would add one particular fining agent, allow it to work, and follow up with a complementary fining agent to determine if there is a synergistic effect to yield maximum clarity. All the while, you will probably want to taste the clarified wine.

Your goal is to attain the desired clarity while not adversely affecting the wine’s mouthfeel and color. As I read back through the years in my wine lab book I remember some of the mistakes along the way. One involved a stubborn haze in a red Bordeaux-style blend I was creating from whole grapes. I took them through a painstakingly long cold soak and then a post-fermentation maceration in order to extract maximum color and a good measure of tannin. I had a deep, ruby-colored, full-bodied, and well-structured wine on my hands that was pleasing as a young wine and built to age with grace. However, I wanted polish. In my naïveté, I recklessly got carried away with whatever fining agents I had left on hand. In this case, too much bentonite and I did not perform a proper bench trial. I ended up with fabulously clear wine but I had stripped it of its backbone because the wine lost a lot of the desirable structure in its mouthfeel. It even cost me a bit of that deep color I worked so hard to extract.

VEGAN WINES – YES, IT’S A THING

One last thought about fining agents is that you may have come across labels among the store shelves indicating the wine is “vegan friendly.” Where does this come from — aren’t grapes vegan anyway? The answer comes, in part, from the use of fining agents that are not animal-derived, such as clays and plant-based products, or perhaps not using fining agents in the wine at all; letting gravity and time work their magic.

Alas, this article has settled. Thanks for remaining in suspension for all the juicy technical information and I hope it was able to provide you some clarity on how you will finish your own wines. Cheers!

The Importance of pH

2022 STORY INDEX

............ Feb-Mar ‘22

“Wine Wizard” Jun-Jul ‘22

Volatile Acidity Basics

“Beginner’s Block” .................Aug-Sep ‘22

AGING

Dealing With Hazes “Advanced Winemaking” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

Lees, Sur Lie Aging, and Bâttonage “Beginner’s Block” Oct-Nov ‘22

BARRELS AND OAKING

Barrel Alternatives

“Wine Wizard” Feb-Mar ‘22

Using Oak Alternatives

“Techniques” Jun-Jul ‘22

BLENDING

The Best of Both Species ........ Feb-Mar ‘22

Fruit & Grape Blends Jun-Jul ‘22

BOTTLING

Bottling Blues

“Wine Wizard” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

Bottling Tips and Checklist

“Wine Wizard” .........................Aug-Sep ‘22

COUNTRY WINEMAKING

Cantaloupe Wine

“Wine Wizard” .........................Apr-May ‘22

Hard Cider Variations

“Tips From the Pros” Oct-Nov ‘22

Raspberry Wine

“Wine Wizard” ......................... Feb-Mar ‘22

Stone Fruit Wines

“Beginner’s Block” Jun-Jul ‘22

EQUIPMENT

Calibrating Your Wine Equipment

“Techniques” Feb-Mar ‘22

pH Meters

“Beginner’s Block” ................. Feb-Mar ‘22

FERMENTATION

Judging Fermentation Completion

“Wine Wizard” .........................Apr-May ‘22

Keys To Successful Fermentations Oct-Nov ‘22

Nitrogen’s Role in Primary Fermentation

“Advanced Winemaking” ....Aug-Sep ‘22

Non-Conventional Yeast

“Advanced Winemaking” Apr-May ‘22

FRESH GRAPE WINEMAKING

Determining Ripeness in Wine Grapes Aug-Sep ‘22

Getting Grape Updates During Growing Season “Wine Wizard” Oct-Nov ‘22

Group Winemaking....................Aug-Sep ‘22

Harvest Checklist

“Techniques” Aug-Sep ‘22

Pressing Like The Pros

“Tips From the Pros” ............Aug-Sep ‘22 When Grapes Throw

You for a Curve Aug-Sep ‘22

GRAPE GROWING

Dear Wes Q&As

“Backyard Vines” Feb-Mar ‘22

DIY Netting Applicator.............Apr-May ‘22

Site Planning and Prep

“Backyard Vines” Jun-Jul ‘22

Trellising and Choosing Vines

“Backyard Vines” .................... Oct-Nov ‘22

HOME WINEMAKING STORIES

Boysenberry Wine

“Last Call” ................................... Jun-Jul ‘22

Gold Anniversary

“Last Call”

TECHNIQUES

Hyperoxidation Jun-Jul ‘22

Inert Gases For Winemaking Apr-May ‘22

TROUBLESHOOTING

Balancing Wine’s Tannin Structure

“Techniques” ............................ Oct-Nov ‘22

Malolactic Issues

“Wine Wizard” Jun-Jul ‘22

Whose Fault Was It? Oct-Nov ‘22

VARIETALS – WINE STYLES

Bonarda Argentine

“Varietal Focus” Feb-Mar ‘22

Cayuga White

“Varietal Focus” ........................ Jun-Jul ‘22

Classic Catawba

“Varietal Focus” Aug-Sep ‘22

Crafting Ice Wine and Ice Cider

“Techniques” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

Graceful Garnacha

“Varietal Focus” Oct-Nov ‘22

Malvasia Bianca

“Varietal Focus” .....................Apr-May ‘22

Sauvignon Blancs:

Old World to New Feb-Mar ‘22

Verdant Verdejo

“Varietal Focus” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

La Vie En Dry Rosé Apr-May ‘22

WINE CHEMISTRY

The Science of Winemaking Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

WINE EVALUATION

Learn Some Wine Judge

Etiquette “Wine Wizard” Aug-Sep ‘22

Prepping Wine for Competitions

“Beginner’s Block” .................Apr-May ‘22

The Science of Food-Wine Pairings

“Techniques” Apr-May ‘22

Tasting Wine at Various Stages

“Wine Wizard” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

WINEMAKING TIPS

Feb-Mar ‘22

2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition Aug-Sep ‘22

2022 WineMaker Magazine Conference Recap .................Aug-Sep ‘22

Bella Toscana! Feb-Mar ‘22

Four ‘Cellos Jun-Jul ‘22

Kimchi Apr-May ‘22

Vinegar Storage Space

“Wine Wizard” Apr-May ‘22

Wine Pairings for the Holidays

“Beginner’s Block” Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

Campden Tablets Best Practices

“Wine Wizard” ......................... Oct-Nov ‘22

Coping With Grapes Affected by Smoke

Taint “Wine Wizard” Oct-Nov ‘22

Microbial Stability Oct-Nov ‘22

Protection From the Elements Dec ‘22-Jan ‘23

White Wine Case Study...............Jun-Jul ‘22

Wine From Frozen Must

“Tips From the Pros” ............Apr-May ‘22

The Wine Wizard’s Pearls of Wiz-dom

“Wine Wizard” Oct-Nov ‘22

ALABAMA

THE WINE SMITH

6800 A Moffett Rd. (US 98) Mobile 36618 (251)645-5554

e-mail: winesmith@bellsouth.net

www.thewinesmith.biz

Home Winemaking and Brewing Supplies.

CALIFORNIA

THE BEVERAGE PEOPLE

1800 Empire Industrial Ct., Ste. A Santa Rosa 95403 (707)544-2520

www.thebeveragepeople.com

Fast Shipping, Great Service, Cheesemaking & Brewing too.

BREHM VINEYARDS®

www.brehmvineyards.com

grapes@brehmvineyards.com

Phone: (510) 527.3675

Fresh grape pick-up in Petaluma, CA

Frozen grapes in Richmond, CA

Ultra-premium grapes for home winemakers for over 40 years! Sold at harvest or shipped frozen across N. America year-round. Over 30 varieties from Carneros, Napa, Sonoma, Washington and Oregon.

CURDS AND WINE, LLC

7194 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego 92111 (858)384-6566

www.curdsandwine.com

Winemaking & cheesemaking supplies, make wine on site!

DELTA PACKING CO. OF LODI, INC.

6021 E. Kettleman Lane

Lodi 95240 (209) 334-1023

fax: (209) 334-0811

bcostamagna@deltapacking.com

www.grapesofgold.com

We offer premium California wine grapes & juice. Please call for a supplier near you.

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

995 Detroit Ave., Unit G Concord 94518 (925)771-7107

fax: (925) 671-4978

srconcord@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

991 N. San Antonio Rd. Los Altos 94022 (650)949-BREW (2739) srlosaltos@moreflavor.com www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

1506 Columbia Ave. #12 Riverside 92507

(951)779-9971

fax: (951) 779-9972

srriverside@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

2315 Verna Court San Leandro 94577 (510)351-3517

srsanleandro@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/

showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

NORCAL BREWING SOLUTIONS

1768 Churn Creek Rd. Redding 96002 (530)243-BEER (2337) or (530)-221-WINE (9463) www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com

Full line of wine, beer, & distilling supplies, hardware, and ingredients. Manufacturers of lees filters, punchdown tools, and custom solutions.

VALLEYVINTNER, LLC (925)217-0058 or (866)812 WINE (9463) Toll Free info@valleyvintner.com www.valleyvintner.com

75+ years wine making expertise!

Owned & Operated by winemakers serving the winemaking community. “The Vine, The Time, The Wine”

COLORADO

THE BREW HUT

15120 East Hampden Ave. Aurora 80014 (303)680-8898

www.thebrewhut.com

Complete Winexpert line! Fresh fruit, equipment & chemicals! We Rent Equipment Too!

LIL’ OLE’ WINEMAKER

516 Main Street Grand Junction 81501 (970)242-3754

Serving Colorado & Utah winemakers since 1978

CONNECTICUT

BREW & WINE HOBBY

Featuring Winexpert & RJ Spagnols kits. Area’s widest selection of wine kits, beer making supplies & equipment

12 Cedar St. East Hartford 06108 (860)528-0592 or 1-800-352-4238

www.brew-wine.com

Specializing in world-wide juice varietals.

MUSTO WINE GRAPE CO., LLC 101 Reserve Road Hartford 06114

1-877-812-1137

sales@juicegrape.com

www.juicegrape.com

www.winemakinginstructions.com

MWG services home winemakers, wineries, breweries, cideries, distilleries, and homebrew shops. We provide access to the best grapes, juices, equipment, supplies, and knowledge available. Let us help you make your next wine your favorite wine.

NORTHEAST WINEMAKING

10 Robert Jackson Way Plainville 06062 (860) 793-2700

www.northeastwinemaking.com

New Year-Round Showroom Open in Plainville with 2nd full service location in Hartford, CT and satellite location in Chelsea, MA. Your one stop shop for fresh grapes, juice, equipment and accessories!

FLORIDA

PARDO WINE GRAPES

3314 N. Perry Ave. Tampa 33603 (813)340-3052

vince@pardowinegrapes.com

www.pardowinegrapes.com

Distributors of quality California (fall) and Chilean (spring) wine grapes and fresh juice to Florida winemakers for over 70 years.

ILLINOIS

CHICAGOLAND WINEMAKERS INC. 689 West North Ave. Elmhurst (630)834-0507 info@chicagolandwinemakers.com www.chicagolandwinemakers.com

Complete line of home winemaking and brewing supplies & equipment since 1971.

INDIANA

GREAT FERMENTATIONS

INDIANAPOLIS

5127 East 65th St. Indianapolis 46220 (317)257-WINE (9463) or toll-free 1-888-463-2739 info@greatfermentations.com www.greatfermentations.com

QUALITY WINE AND ALE SUPPLY/ HOMEBREWIT.COM

5127 E. 65th St. Indianapolis 46220 Phone: (574) 295-9975 customerservice@homebrewit.com

Online: www.Homebrewit.com

Quality wine making supplies for beginners AND experts. Bottles, Corks, Shrinks, Chemicals, and Professional Equipment. Largest selection of Winexpert Kits. Fast Shipping. Expert Advice.

IOWA

BLUFF STREET BREW HAUS 372 Bluff Street

Dubuque

(563)582-5420

e-mail: jerry@bluffbrewhaus.com www.bluffbrewhaus.com

Complete line of wine & beermaking supplies. In operation since 2006.

KANSAS

BACCHUS & BARLEYCORN, LTD.

6633 Nieman Road

Shawnee 66203

(913)962-2501

www.bacchus-barleycorn.com

Your one stop supply shop for home wine, cider, mead, beer and cheese makers for over 30 years.

HOMEBREW PRO SHOPPE, INC.

2061 E. Santa Fe

Olathe 66062

(913)768-1090 or

1-866-296-2739 (BYO-BREW)

Secure ordering on line: www.homebrewproshoppe.com

Complete line of wine & beer making supplies & equipment.

KENTUCKY

WINEMAKERS & BEERMAKERS SUPPLY

9475 Westport Rd. Louisville 40241

(502)425-1692

www.winebeersupply.com

Impeccable line of wine & beer making supplies. Superior grade of juice from Winexpert. Quality malt from Briess & Muntons. Family owned store since 1972.

MARYLAND

THE FLYING BARREL

1781 North Market St. Frederick

(301)663-4491

fax: (301) 663-6195

www.flyingbarrel.com

Maryland’s 1st Wine-On-Premise & large selection of homewine supplies! Wine judge on staff!

MARYLAND HOMEBREW

6770 Oak Hall Lane, #108 Columbia 21045

1-888-BREWNOW

www.mdhb.com

We carry the VinoSuperiore frozen Italian must along with Winexpert Kits. Everything you need to make your own wine & cheese. Visit us in-person or online. We ship everywhere

MASSACHUSETTS

BEER AND WINE HOBBY, INC.

85 Andover St.

Danvers 01923

1-800-523-5423

e-mail: bwhinfo@beer-wine.com

website: www.beer-wine.com

Brew on YOUR Premise™

For the most discriminating wine & beer hobbyist.

THE WITCHES BREW INC.

12 Maple Ave. Foxborough 02035

(508)543-0433

steve@thewitchesbrew.com

www.thewitchesbrew.com

You’ve Got the Notion, We’ve Got the Potion

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

MICHIGAN

MACOMB VINTNER SUPPLY

44443 Phoenix Dr. Sterling Heights (248)495-0801

www.macombvintnersupply.com

Purveyor of grapes and grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva Bella, Mosto Bella & Chilean Bello Brands, and Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.

MID-MICHIGAN VINTNER SUPPLY

Grand Rapids & South Lyon (517)898-3203

www.Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com info@Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com

Purveyor of fresh grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva Bella, Mosto Bella & Chilean Bello Brands.

MORGAN VINEYARD

15775 40th Avenue

Coopersville 49404 (616)648-3025 morgangrapes@gmail.com

MorganVineyard.com

Supplier of high quality wine grapes conveniently located in West Michigan.

SICILIANO’S MARKET

2840 Lake Michigan Dr. N.W. Grand Rapids 49504 (616)453-9674

fax: (616) 453-9687

e-mail: sici1@sbcglobal.net

www.sicilianosmkt.com

Largest Wine Making inventory in West Michigan. Now selling beer and winemaking supplies on-line.

TAYLOR RIDGE VINEYARDS

3843 105th Ave.

Allegan 49010 (269)521-4047 bctaylor@btc-bci.com www.taylorridgevineyard.com

18 Varieties of Wine Grapes and Juices. Vinifera, New York State, Minnesota and French hybrids. Providing wine grapes and juices for over 30 years.

MISSOURI

HOME BREWERY

1967 West Boat St.

Ozark

1-800-321-BREW (2739) brewery@homebrewery.com

www.homebrewery.com

Since 1984, providing excellent Service, Equipment and Ingredients. Beer, Wine, Mead, Soda and Cheese.

NEW YORK

DOC’S HOMEBREW SUPPLIES

451 Court Street Binghamton 13904 (607)722-2476

www.docsbrew.com

Full-service beer & wine making shop serving NY’s Southern Tier & PA’s Northern Tier since 1991. Extensive line of Winexpert kits, supplies and equipment.

FULKERSON WINERY & JUICE PLANT

5576 State Route 14 Dundee 14837 (607)243-7883

fax: (607) 243-8337

www.fulkersonw inery.com

Fresh Finger Lakes grape juice available during harvest. Large selection of home winemaking supplies. Visit our website to browse and order supplies. Open year round 10-5, extended seasonal hours. Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @fulkersonwinery.

MAIN STREET WINES & SUPPLIES

249 Main St. Arcade 14009 (585) 492-2739

fax: (585) 492-2777

mainstwines@yahoo.com

Plenty of wine kits available to make your own wine. Full line of winemaking supplies and accessories for your convenience. Tue-Fri 10-6; Sat 10-3 or by appt. Like us on Facebook.

NIAGARA TRADITION

HOMEBREWING SUPPLIES

1296 Sheridan Drive Buffalo 14217 (800)283-4418 or (716)877-8767

www.nthomebrew.com

We feature a complete line of supplies for making wine, beer, mead, cider and cheese.

PANTANO’S WINE GRAPES & HOMEBREW

249 Rte 32 S. New Paltz 12561 (845)255-5201 or (845)706-5152 (cell) pantanowineandbeer@yahoo.com

www.pantanosbeerwine.com

Find Us On Facebook. Your source for wine & beer making supplies and equipment. Grapes and Juice from California, Italy & Chile in season, wine kits and all juice pails (6 gal) year round. Classes available. We now carry Distilling Products and Stills.

PROSPERO EQUIPMENT CORP.

123 Castleton St. Pleasantville 10570 (914)769-6252

fax: (914) 769-6786

info@prosperocorp.biz

www.prosperocorp.biz

The source to all your winemaking equipment.

TEN THOUSAND VINES WINERY

8 South Buffalo St. Hamburg 14075

(716)646-9979

mike@TenThousandVines.com

www.TenThousandVines.com

Wine supplies, juice and advice.

WALKER’S WINE JUICE

2860 N.Y. Route 39 – Since 1955 Forestville

(716)679-1292

www.walkerswinejuice.com

Over 50 varieties of “Hot-Pack”

Grape, Fruit and Berry Juice, Requiring No Refrigeration, shipped by UPS all year. Supplying over 800 wineries in 37 states!

WATERLOO CONTAINER CO. 2311 N.Y. Route 414 Waterloo 13165 (315)539-3922

contactus@waterloocontainer.com

www.waterloocontainer.com

Supplier of wine bottles, corks, and closures to all sizes of winemakers.

NORTH CAROLINA

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (BELMONT)

1500 River D., Suite 104 Belmont 28012

Advice Line: (704) 825-8400

Order Line: 1-800-365-2739

www.ebrew.com

44 years serving all home winemakers & brewers’ needs! Come visit for a real Homebrew Super Store experience!

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (CHARLOTTE) 3911 South Blvd. Charlotte 28209

Advice Line: (704) 825-8400

Order Line: 1-800-365-2739

www.ebrew.com

44 years serving all home winemakers & brewers’ needs! Visit our stores to learn how we can help you make the best wine you can make.

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (CORNELIUS)

19725 Oak St. Cornelius 28031

Voice Line: (704) 527-2337

Fax Line: (704) 522-6427

www.ebrew.com

44 years serving all home winemakers & brewers’ needs! Visit our stores to learn how we can help you make the best wine you can make.

AMERICAN BREWMASTER

3021-5 Stony Brook Dr. Raleigh 27604 (919)850-0095

Text: (984) 251-3030

www.americanbrewmaster.com

Wine Kits, Wine Ingredients and additives, corks and bottles since 1983! Wow. 1983!

ASHEVILLE BREWERS SUPPLY

712-B Merrimon Ave. Asheville 28804 (828)358-3536

www.ashevillebrewers.com

Value. Quality. Service. Since 1994.

CAROLINA WINE SUPPLY

329 W. Maple St. Yadkinville 27055 (336)677-6831

fax: (336) 677-1048

www.carolinawinesupply.com

Home Winemaking Supplies & Support.

OHIO

THE GRAPE AND GRANARY 915 Home Ave. Akron 44310 (330)633-7223

www.grapeandgranary.com

Concentrates, Fresh juice, Wine on Premise.

LABEL PEELERS BEER & WINE MAKING SUPPLIES, INC.

211 Cherry St. Kent 44240 (330) 678-6400

info@labelpeelers.com

www.labelpeelers.com

Specializing in winemaking/ homebrew supplies & equipment. Free monthly classes.

Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-7pm

OKLAHOMA

HIGH GRAVITY 6808 S. Memorial Drive Tulsa 74133 (918)461-2605

e-mail: store@highgravitybrew.com

www.highgravitybrew.com

Join our Frequent Fermenters Club!

OREGON

F.H. STEINBART CO. 234 SE 12th Ave. Portland 97214 (503) 232-8793 fax: (503) 238-1649

e-mail: info@fhsteinbart.com

www.fhsteinbart.com

Brewing and Wine making supplies since 1918!

HOME FERMENTER

123 Monroe Street Eugene 97402 (541)485-6238

www.homefermenter.com

Providing equipment, supplies and advice to winemakers and homebrewers for over 40 years.

PENNSYLVANIA

BOOTLEGGERS BREW SHOP, LLC

917 Pleasant Valley Blvd. Altoona 16602

(814)931-9962

http://bootleggersbrewshop.com

bootleggersbrewshop@gmail.com

Find us on Facebook! Central PA’s LARGEST homebrew supplies store! We carry seasonal cold pressed wine juices from around the world. Special orders welcome!

NITTANY VALLEY TRUE VALUE

1169 Nittany Valley Drive Bellefonte

(814) 383-2809 fax: (814) 383-4884

Supplies - Equipment - Classes. Fresh grapes & juice in season.

PRESQUE ISLE WINE CELLARS

9440 W. Main Rd. (US Rte. 20) North East 16428 (800)488-7492

www.piwine.com

Your one stop shop! Complete service since 1964, helping you make great wines. We specialize in small winery and amateur wine supplies and equipment. Check out our website www.piwine.com or stop by and see us. Fresh grapes and juice at harvest.

SCOTZIN BROTHERS

65 N. Fifth St. Lemoyne 17043 (717)737-0483 or 800-791-1464

www.scotzinbros.com

email: shop@scotzinbros.com

WINE and Beer MAKERS PARADISE!

WASHINGTON

BADER BEER & WINE SUPPLY

711 Grand Blvd.

Vancouver, WA 98661

1-800-596-3610

Sign up for our free e-newsletter @ Baderbrewing.com

THE BEER ESSENTIALS

2624 South 112th St. #E-1 Lakewood 98499 (253)581-4288 www.thebeeressentials.com

Mail order and secure on-line ordering available.

BREHM VINEYARDS®

www.brehmvineyards.com grapes@brehmvineyards.com

Phone: (510) 527.3675

Fresh grape pick-up in Underwood, WA

Frozen grapes in Portland, OR

Ultra-premium grapes for home winemakers for over 40 years! Sold at harvest or shipped frozen across N. America year-round. Over 30 varieties from Carneros, Napa, Sonoma, Washington and Oregon.

JON’S HOMEBREW AND WINE SUPPLY 1430 E. Main Ave., #1430C

Puyallup 98372 (253) 286-7607

jon@jonshomebrew.com jonshomebrew.com

Puyallup’s home for Home Beer and Winemaking supplies!

WISCONSIN

THE CELLAR BREW SHOP 465 N. Washburn St. Oshkosh 54904 (920)517-1601

www.thecellarhomebrew.com

cellarbrewshop@outlook.com

Beer & Wine ingredients and equipment. Extensive inventory at Competitive prices, bulk discounts. Great service and free advice from experienced staff.

HOUSE OF HOMEBREW 410 Dousman St. Green Bay (920)435-1007

staff@houseofhomebrew.com

www.houseofhomebrew.com

Beer, Wine, Cider, Mead, Soda, Coffee, Tea, Cheese Making.

WINE & HOP SHOP

1919 Monroe St. Madison 53711 (608)257-0099

www.wineandhop.com

wineandhop@gmail.com

Madison, WI’s locally owned homebrewing and winemaking headquarters for over 40 years. Fast, affordable shipping to anywhere. Use promo code WineMaker at checkout for discounts. Free expert advice too!

CANADA ALBERTA

BREW FOR LESS 10774 - 95th Street

Edmonton T5H 2C9 (708)422-0488

brewforless.com

info@brewforless.com

Edmonton’s Largest Wine & Beer Making Supply Store

READER SERVICE

GRAPES TO GLASS 5308 -17th Ave. SW

Calgary T3E 6S6 (403)243-5907

www.grapestoglass.com

Calgary’s largest selection of brewing, winemaking & distilling supplies. On-line shopping available with delivery via Canada Post.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

BOSAGRAPE WINERY & BREW SUPPLIES 6908 Palm Ave.

Burnaby V5J 4M3 (604)473-WINE

fax: (604) 433-2810

info@bosagrape.com

www.bosagrape.com

Ingredients, equipment, labware & supplies for brew & winemaking. Still Spirits, Hanna, Stavin Oak, Brehm Vineyards, Mosti juices, Brewcraft, Marchisio, Accuvin, Chemetrics, Vintner’s Harvest, Lalvin, Buon Vino, Vintage Shop.

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO ALL OF OUR ADVERTISERS’ WEBSITES, GO TO WWW.WINEMAKERMAG.COM/RESOURCE/READER - SERVICES

DRY FINISH

BY KRISTEN SHUBERT

U.S. TASTING TEAM

Yes, it’s a real thing!

t’s a real thing! Honestly!” I have said countless times to those in disbelief when I explain I am part of the U.S. Tasting Team and must taste wine daily to practice. The International Blind Wine Tasting Challenge is sponsored by the French wine magazine, Le Revue du Vin de France, with Philippe De Cantenac as the organizer. In his view, “As a winemaker, you have to know by heart all the qualities and faults of the wines . . . and see how winemakers work around the world. So this is culture and experience making you a better taster.”

Twelve wines served in unmarked carafes are poured to contestants. Each team of four tasters has 10 minutes to name the primary grape, country of origin, the region of origin, the producer, and the vintage year of the wine. The wines can be from anywhere in the world! There were 34 teams competing in Champagne, France, in October, 2022.

Team USA is comprised of all women, and two of them are amateur winemakers in the Los Angeles, California, area, as well as amateur wine competition judges for Cellarmasters of Los Angeles. I recruited Annette Solomon last year as a judge and now as a teammate; she is best known for her winemaking in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. I make Spanish varietals from Lodi, California.

As amateur winemakers, we taste our wines throughout the process from grapes at harvest through bottling. Winemakers can identify the basics of body, acid, alcohol, tannin, and malolactic fermentation (MLF). We critique our own wines; so it came to us naturally to dissect commercial wines. Using the traditional markers of each grape variety, we try to eliminate wines before we include them. Coach Lisa Stoll will ask us, “Is it aromatic? Or non-aromatic?” If

it is non-aromatic, the team can throw out non-aromatic white wine varietals.

Next, we discuss acid. High acid leads us to include grapes like Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris, Garganega, or Grüner Veltliner. As winemakers, we also recognize additives — especially when used to create the wine’s foundation — like acid. Our best clue for grape identification is the feeling of acid and modified acid can lead us to New World winemaking.

Let me run everyone through one example of how we make our deduction . . . We recently tasted a Chardonnay that was so manipulated, we were confused for the first few minutes; all we could identify for aroma was white powder. Old World vs. New World winemaking is about regional wine styles as much as climate contribution. When the powder aroma blew off the Chardonnay, the aromas of ripe tropical fruit, butterscotch, vanilla, cottage cheese, and alcohol came through. Annette and I can recognize MLF components and the cottage cheese aroma confirmed MLF had occurred.

Once we decided the wine was from the New World, we needed to decide on a country. South Africa is not known for Chardonnay, nor is Argentina. Australia has surprising Chardonnays, but theirs are usually cool coastal and retain acid. Chile’s Chardonnay retains acid because of altitude and coastal diurnal shift. We were left with New Zealand and California. The North Island has two regions known for Chardonnay that generally use French oak. The butterscotch and vanilla traits were from American oak. This is where winemaking style for the region is the deciding factor for California Chardonnay. Turned out the wine was from a famous California wine producer.

We listen to the grape and the traits it presents. Will we win? At this time, it’s to be determined, but I believe we have the advantage, based on our unique experience as amateur winemakers.

Winemakers can identify the basics of body, acid, alcohol, tannin, and malolactic fermentation (MLF).

100% GRAPE MUST — NO WATER ADDED! Once aged and ready to serve… enjoy the vibrant colors, aromatic bouquets with handpicked wines from some of the world’s richest terroirs. Stimulating fruit flavours of subtle character, well balanced tannins and significant alcohol levels typify the wines produced from our MEGLIOLI LIMITED EDITION. A truly exceptional home wine experience!